Abstract
Mental health is a topic of increasing interest and concern across the weather enterprise amidst a backdrop of funding cuts, extreme storms, and longer, more involved work hours. The present study therefore investigated wellbeing in the meteorological workplace. Participants (N= 389), professional meteorologists (n = 360) and professionally-employed meteorology students (n = 29), voluntarily participated in a Qualtrics-hosted online survey and responded to a number of measures representing a broad range of mental health variables. These individuals fell into three employment sectors: U.S. National Weather Service (NWS), Broadcast (television weather), and Other (a combination of academic, private sector, military, and non-NWS operational meteorologists). Individual differences emerged between meteorological sectors in personality and the subjective wellbeing domains of burnout, job satisfaction, and anxiety. Broadcasters were significantly more burnt-out at work and personally, were higher in extraversion, and were highest in anxiety. NWS meteorologists were most burnt-out in working with partners. The Other category of meteorologists showed more agreeableness and greater job satisfaction than broadcasters and those in the NWS. There was no cross-sector difference, however, in traits that might be relatively uniform among meteorologists: Grit, life satisfaction, self-concept clarity, subjective happiness, stress, and depression. Results are discussed in terms of consequences for meteorologists’ mental health and emotional wellbeing as well as the future of the field.
Highlights
Peer Review This work has undergone a double-blind review by a minimum of two faculty members from institutions of higher learning from around the world
Given that meteorologists feel uncomfortable talking with supervisors about their mental health, the present study examined psychophysiological health outcomes related to consequences of stressful conditions in the meteorological workplace (Worley, 2020)
Dunn s test indicated that both National Weather Service (NWS) (p = 0.003) and Other meteorologists (p < 0.001) had higher job satisfaction than the sampled broadcasters
Summary
Peer Review This work has undergone a double-blind review by a minimum of two faculty members from institutions of higher learning from around the world. While comparisons with engineers and physicists were important to testing cognitive style differences or similarities and a useful first step in opening up this area (meteorologist mental health) for research, neither of those groups is faced with on-thejob circumstances on par with those of meteorologists. It is not necessarily a meaningful comparison from which to draw conclusions on meteorologists mental health. The prevailing theoretical view of personality today, the Five Factor (or “Big Five ) Model, consists of the broad trait dimensions of openness (curious; creative; desiring varied experience), conscientiousness (dependable; organized and self-disciplined), extraversion (sociable; energetic; affectively positive), agreeableness (compassionate; cooperative), and neuroticism (emotionally unstable) (e.g., McCrae & Costa Jr., 1987; McCrae & John, 1990)
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