Recognition of Stress in Workers. (Report 1). Relationship between recognitions of causes of stress and stress reaction.

Abstract

Three aspects of the recognition of stress in 665 workers were investigated; namely, causes of stress, stress reactions and modifying factors. We examined the relationship among these aspects, in order to determine some different types of recognition. Several characteristics of the different recognition groups were also examined. 1) The workers who recognized that the causes of their stress were mainly "daily hassles" or "minor events which happened occasionally" accounted for 82.5% of all subjects, and the workers who recognized that their stress was caused mainly by "major life events" accounted for the remaining 17.5%. 2) The subjective stress of the workers in the "major life events" group was significantly larger than that of the workers in "daily hassles". 3) The group with stress due to "daily hassles or minor events" recognized the stress reaction mainly as "irritability", and their actual stressor was "busyness in work". In contrast, the recognition of a stress reaction due to a "major life event" group was represented by "depression/anxiety", and their actual stressors were not only major events such as "promotion or transfer" but also psychological factors such as "low emotional support of family members". 4) The mean age and rank of the "major life event" group were significantly higher than those of the other group.