Association of job-related stress factors with stress reactions among male researchers at a Japanese academic institution

Abstract

This study attempts to analyze job stress in male researchers. We distributed the Brief Job Stress Questionnaires (BJSQ) , which was composed of stress reactions (psychological distress and physical complaints) , job stressors, and social support, to all male employees at a Japanese academic institution. We compared job stress in 145 male researchers with that of 40 male technicians and 15 male clerical workers respectively. Then, we compared job stress between 26 supervisors and 119 subordinates among male researchers. Finally, we examined the associations between stress-related factors and stress reactions among male researchers. Regarding job stressors, qualitative workload caused significantly higher stress levels in researchers than in either technicians or clerical workers. Among researchers, both qualitative workload and quantitative workload caused significantly higher stress levels for supervisors than for subordinates. Regarding stress reactions, no significant differences were found between researchers and technicians or clerical workers, or between supervisors and subordinates among researchers. In multiple regression analysis, physical complaints were most affected by qualitative workload, while psychological distresses were most affected by quantitative workload. In this study, qualitative workload was greater for researchers than for other employees, and it was the most characteristic job stressor for researchers.