The Role of Stress and Negative Emotions in an Occupational Crisis

Abstract

The study examined how negative affects and exposure to various stressors are related to an occupational crisis. Two hundred and seventy-seven employees (53% women) from various occupations filled in the Occupational Crisis Scale, a stressor questionnaire, the Anger Expression Scale (measuring both suppressed and overt anger), Spielberger's Anxiety Inventory (measuring both state and trait anxiety) and Beck's Depression Inventory. The results showed that occupational crisis was a function of work overload, interpersonal problems and frustration at work, organizational changes, a threat of job loss, and/or family worries. In addition, occupational crises were typically experienced by women and were characterized more by trait anxiety, suppressed anger and depressive symptoms than by overtly expressed anger or state anxiety. Of the three female employee groups who were most vulnerable to the crisis, the group which had suffered from interpersonal problems and frustration at work displayed the most indices of the crisis.