Job-related Stress Research Articles

Differences between Hair Cortisol Concentrations in Day Shift Workers and Rotating Night Shift Workers in Japan

PURPOSE: The study aimed to determine the differences between stress levels in day shift workers and night shift workers by measurements of hair cortisol concentration (HCC) and by using self-administered questionnaires. 
 
 METHODS: HCC was measured by using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. The subjective stress level was evaluated by a brief job stress questionnaire, stress response scale-18 (SRS-18), and visual analog scale (VAS).
 
 RESULTS: Mean (± standard deviation: SD) HCC in the 16 subjects was 17.28 ± 7.39 pg/mg. There was no significant difference between HCCs in day shift workers (17.98 ± 3.03 pg/mg) and rotating night shift workers (16.37 ± 1.86 pg/mg). There were also no significant differences in SRS-18 scores, job-related stress scale scores, and VAS scores between day shift workers and rotating night shift workers. There was a significant difference in HCC between the group in which the stress condition was weak or normal and the group in which the stress condition was slightly strong or definitely strong according to the SRS-18 level (p = 0.030). 
 
 CONCLUSIONS: Day shift workers and rotating night shift workers have similar HCCs and similar degrees of job-related stress. In rotating shift workers who feel strong stress, acquirement of resilience due to stress coping for medium- to long-term stress may be involved in low HCC.

Flexible work arrangements and their impact on women in radiology: RSNA 2021 panel discussion summary sponsored by AAWR and more

There is an ongoing trend in the direction of flexible work arrangements in which employees can decide where and when to work. Multiple studies have demonstrated a significant decrease in associated job-related stress, improved job satisfaction, job autonomy, and collaboration when flexible work arrangements exist. However, some have reported increased workload and home spillover to work.1 The American Association for Women in Radiology (AAWR) convened a panel of radiologist presenters with diverse backgrounds who shared their own experiences with flexible work arrangements at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) 2021 Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting. This manuscript summarizes the discussion and reviews various aspects of workplace flexibility.The RSNA 2021 AAWR-sponsored panel on workplace flexibility reviewed the current state of different work arrangements available for radiologists and addressed future strategies for implementing workplace flexibility. The panelists addressed the imperatives and key factors for the availability of diverse opportunities and ways to foster future opportunities. Matters discussed included differences in the availability of flexible work arrangements in the healthcare system compared to other industries, normalizing flexible work arrangements at the organization level, underutilization of currently available flexible work arrangements, part-time positions and stigma associated with them, thriving in a part-time capacity, workplace flexibility options for radiology residents and fellows and successfully implementing workplace flexibility at institutions. The panel ended with a call to action to develop toolkits with effective resources to support implementing flexible workplace opportunities.

Prevalence of occupational stress among Iranian physicians and dentist: a systematic and meta-analysis study.

Occupational stress in health care providers is an undesirable factor that can lead to dissatisfaction and burnout and affect the quality of care and treatment of patients. This study estimated the prevalence of occupational stress among Iranian physicians and dentists. The articles were searched using the keywords: "job stress", "job-related stress", "occupational stress", "work-related stress", "workplace stress", "physician", "dentist", and "Iran", and all possible combinations of these terms in domestic databases of Scientific Information Database (SID) and MagIran and international databases of Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus with no time limit. Heterogeneity among the studies was assessed using the Cochran's Q test. Data analysis was performed in Stata version 11 based on the heterogeneity state using a random-effects model. The sample size in selected articles on physicians and dentists varied from 71 to 516 and 90 to 200, respectively. The prevalence of occupational stress in physicians was 70.10% (95% CI: 55.43-84.78), and among dentists was 50.87% (95% CI: 33.93-67.81). According to the results, there was no significant association between the prevalence of occupational stress, sample size, and year of publication in physicians and dentists. The results showed that publication bias was (p=0.029) for physicians and (p=0.630) for dentists. Occupational stress among Iranian physicians and dentists is high, which can adverselyaffect therapists and patients. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on this problem to manage and control it.

Uncomfortable yet necessary: The impact of PPE on communication in emergency medicine.

The efficacy of pre-hospital emergency services is heavily dependent on the effective communication of care providers. This effective communication occurs between providers as part of a team and also among providers interacting with family members and patients. The COVID-19 pandemic introduced a number of communication challenges to emergency care, which are primarily linked to the increased use of personal protective equipment (PPE). We sought to analyze the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on emergency medical service (EMS) workers and pre-hospital care delivery. We conducted focus groups and one-on-one interviews with fire-based EMS first responders between September 2021 and 2022. Interviews included questions about job-related stress, EMS skills, work experiences and changes during COVID-19. Interviews were recorded, independently dual coded and analyzed for themes. Two hundred twenty-three first responders participated in 40 focus groups and 40 lead paramedics participated in individual interviews. We found that additional use of PPE was reported to have significantly impaired efficiency and perceptions of quality of care-among EMS team members and also between EMS workers and patients. EMS personnels also experienced on-scene hostility on arrival (from both families and other agencies). Extensive use of PPE muffles voices, obscures facial expressions and can cause team members to have difficulty recognizing and communicating with one another and can be a barrier to showing empathy and connecting with patients. Creative solutions such as putting a hand on someone's shoulder, wearing name tags on suits and explaining rationale for perceived delays were mentioned as methods to transcend these barriers. The appearance of providers in heavy PPE can be unsettling and create barriers to human connection, particularly for pediatric patients. Human connection is an important element of health-care delivery and healing. These findings shed light on new skills that are needed to initiate and maintain human connection in these times of PPE use, especially full-body PPE. Awareness of the communication and empathy barriers posed by PPE is the first step to improving provider-patient interactions in pre-hospital EMS. Additionally, 'communication-friendly' adaptations of PPE equipment may be an important area for future research and development in manufacturing and the health-care industry.

Social Well-being and Related Factors in Workers Supporting Individuals with Developmental and Behavioral Disorders

Social well-being is a complex concept that entails social contacts, the quality of the social contacts that a person has, and the level of interaction of the person within a social context. It is indeed the cornerstone of a person's general well-being, including the person's emotions and even bodily condition. Such social well-being is essential for care workers who tend to individuals with developmental and behavioural disorders. These workers are at a higher risk of experiencing job-related stressors, including high emotional demands, difficult behaviours and stigma that makes them lack good social relationships. Moreover, the kind of work they do requires a high level of interpersonal relationships that may build up or erode the staff member's social well-being depending on the prevailing supportive systems. The current paper aims to identify key determinants of social functioning that relate to care workers; these are work context, emotional workload, care support, organisational commitment, job performance, and training (Lopez et al., 2021). A clear appreciation of these aspects can enable the design of relevant intercessions that would facilitate the emotional and social functioning of care workers while at the same time supporting the quality of care afforded to people with developmental and behavioural issues.

Awareness and Needs of Smoking Cessation Services for Female Emotional Laborers, Parcel Delivery Workers, Transportation Workers, and Construction Workers in South Korea.

Although South Korea has implemented various smoking cessation services, women who are emotional laborers, as well as parcel delivery, transportation, and construction workers, have poor access to these services. This study evaluated the smoking-related characteristics of workers in these four occupations as well as the awareness of and need for smoking cessation services. In total 808 workers in these four occupations aged 19 years and above were recruited nationwide and had their data analyzed. The participants' age, marital status, number of work hours per week, job-related stress, age when they started smoking, average number of cigarettes a day, types of tobacco products, close relationships to others who smoke, number of attempts to quit smoking, plans to quit smoking, awareness of cessation services, prior utilization of cessation services, and need for cessation services were surveyed. Compared with parcel delivery workers, female emotional laborers and transportation and construction workers had more attempts to quit smoking, plans to quit smoking, and prior utilization of smoking cessation services, moreover, construction workers had a significantly lower awareness of smoking cessation services. Parcel delivery workers need smoking cessation programs, mobile applications to help them quit smoking, and improvements in their work environments. Cessation services and education should be promoted at workplaces and among managers.

Teacher stress and work-family conflict: examining a moderation model of psychological capital

ABSTRACT Schools are becoming more stressful work environments, and teachers are becoming more vulnerable to job-related stress because of innovation overload, high job demands, and work-family conflict (WFC). Enhancing teachers’ psychological capacities may prove helpful in managing stress under such work conditions. While past research has focused on the relationship between WFC and stress, there is limited empirical evidence in the education context on the effect of psychological capital (PsyCap) on changing the magnitude of (moderating) the interplays between WFC and stress. Therefore, this study investigates the moderation effect of teachers’ positive PsyCap on the relationship between teachers’ WFC and job stress. We adopted a quantitative research method and collected data from a randomly selected sample of 385 teachers in Siirt, a city in the South-East region of Turkey. Data were analyzed through descriptive, correlation, and hierarchical moderated regression statistics. Results indicated that WFC increases teachers’ job stress, and PsyCap moderates the relationship between WFC and job stress by mitigating the effects of WFC on teachers’ job stress.

Chronic Occupational Stress: Psychotherapeutic Treatment Approaches

Mental illness is a central risk factor for occupational incapacity and premature retirement. One of the contributors for mental illness as well as somatic diseases is chronic stress at work. Therefore, it is essential for affected individuals to get professional help in order to identify and ease mental stress at work as well as to regain their working ability and prevent relapses. Job-related stress models facilitate the identification of health-relevant stress factors on an individual and organizational level. This enables therapists to use job-related treatment approaches. These should comprise the following elements: motivational support, cognitive coping strategies, provision of knowledge and exercises for the competence to act and strategies for recovery, and social counseling. Promising results in the growing field of internet-based occupational e-mental health allow us to expect good effects in prevention and psychotherapeutic treatment of occupational stress.

Police stress: the role of occupational culture and officer characteristics

PurposeThe purpose of the current study was to augment the police culture and stress literature by empirically examining the impact of features of the internal and external work environment, as well as officer characteristics, on police officer stress.Design/methodology/approachThe current empirical inquiry utilized survey data collected from street-level officers in a mid-sized urban police department in a southern region of the United States (n = 349).FindingsThis study revealed that perceived danger, suspicion of citizens and cynicism toward the public increased police occupational stress, while support from supervisors mitigated it. In addition, Black and Latinx officers reported significantly less stress than their White counterparts.Research limitations/implicationsWhile this study demonstrates that patrol officers' perceptions of the external and internal work environments (and race/ethnicity) matter in terms of occupational stress, it is not without limitations. One limitation related to the generalizability of the findings, as results are gleaned from a single large agency serving a metropolitan jurisdiction in the Southeast. Second, this study focused on cultural attitudes and stress, although exact connections to behaviors are more speculative. Finally, the survey took place prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the killing of George Floyd (and others), which radically shook police–community relationships nationwide.Practical implicationsPolice administrators should be cognizant of the importance that views of them have for patrol officer stress levels. Moreover, police trainers and supervisors concerned with occupational stress of their subordinates should work toward altering assignments and socialization patterns so that officers are exposed to a variety of patrol areas, in avoiding prolonged assignments of high social distress.Originality/valueThe study augmented the police culture and stress literature by empirically uncovering the individual-level sources of patrol officers' job-related stress. This study builds off of Paoline and Gau's (2018) research using data collected some 15 years ago by examining a more contemporary, post–Ferguson, context.

The impact of leadership on employee presenteeism: A comparison between police and non-police samples

Leader support is an essential factor influencing worker health and stress. Police officers are part of a class of workers who must deal with a high level of stress. Significant stress can lead to the onset of symptoms of psychological distress, which can lead to presenteeism (employees are present but suffer from mental health symptoms). However, we note that few studies focus on police leadership and job-related-stress presenteeism. Therefore, the current research is relevant and aims to demonstrate the link between the leadership style (Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire) on presenteeism (Job-Stress-Related Presenteeism measure) for police and non-police samples. A total of 252 employees, police officers (municipal organization) and blue-collar workers (public organization) completed the questionnaires. The results indicated that, for both samples, transformational leadership did not significantly influence job-stress presenteeism. Laissez-faire leadership had a strong negative effect on police and non-police employees’ job-related stress presenteeism scores. Finally, a transactional leadership style predicted higher levels of job-related-stress presenteeism for our non-police (blue-collar) sample; it did not significantly influence job-stress-related presenteeism for our police sample. These results highlight the importance of leadership style on employee well-being, and the implications of these results are discussed.

The impact of job-related stress on township teachers' professional well-being: A moderated mediation analysis.

This study aimed to explore the relationship between job-related stress and township teachers' professional well-being. Based on Job Demand-Resource Model, this study examined the mediating role of teachers' professional identity and the moderating role of perceived organizational support in this relationship. A total of 24,276 township teachers in China responded to the Teacher Stress Scale, the Teachers' Professional Identity Scale, the Teachers' Professional Well-Being Structure Questionnaire, and the Perceived Organizational Support Scale. Results showed that: (1) the professional well-being of township teachers differed significantly in terms of school type and demographic characteristics like age and gender; (2) job-related stress negatively predicted township teachers' professional well-being, with teachers' professional identity playing a mediating role; (3) the relation between job-related stress and teachers' professional identity was moderated by perceived organizational support; and (4) in the moderated mediation analysis, job-related stress positively predicted township teachers' professional well-being. These findings indicated that township teachers' professional well-being was influenced by both organizational and individual factors, which provided a theoretical basis and intervention pathways for improving township teachers' professional well-being.

Shifts in Stressors, Internalizing Symptoms, and Coping Mechanisms of Teachers During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

As the frontline of our education system, teachers endure greater job-related stress than other professionals, even under the best of circumstances. While they were already exposed to certain stressors affecting their emotional health, the pandemic outbreak introduced new challenges putting teachers at risk of experiencing higher rates of emotional distress. This longitudinal study aimed to identify changes in teaching stressors and teachers’ coping strategies in the period before the pandemic to the immediate outbreaks of COVID-19 in Fall 2020. In addition, we examined the correlation of teachers’ coping approaches with stress, anxiety, and depression to understand if coping strategies correlate and predict such emotional distress. To this end, 376 English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers in Iran in the first wave and 351 in the second wave completed a battery of validated inventories capturing their emotional distress, teaching stressors, and coping approaches. The mean scores of the stressors and coping strategies across two waves indicated significant shifts toward using functional coping strategies upon experiencing new demands. Furthermore, we found that novice teachers experienced higher rates of stress and anxiety, which were positively associated with dysfunctional coping strategies. The results of the stepwise regression analysis with (dys)functional coping strategies indicated that coping mechanisms significantly account for 25% of variances in stress, anxiety, and depression. The implications of the study regarding promoting teacher mental health through identifying the risk factors associated with dysfunctional coping strategies have been discussed.

Chinese English teachers' occupational intention during distance education: The role of burnout and job-related stress.

Since turnover intention has a negative impact on teachers’ productivity, a bulk of educational research has studied the personal, organizational, and emotional predictors of this construct. Nevertheless, the predictive function of burnout and job-related stress as two emotional factors has been less attended to by scholars. To address this gap, the current empirical study explored the role of burnout and job-related stress in Chinese English teachers’ turnover intention during distance education. In doing so, three pre-designed questionnaires were distributed among 221 Chinese teachers. Having collected the needed data, the researcher analyzed the datasets through the Pearson correlation test and multiple regression analysis. As a result of the correlation test, positive, direct relationships were found between burnout, job-related stress, and teacher turnover intention. Moreover, the results of the regression analysis evinced the significant role of burnout and job-related stress in predicting Chinese English teachers’ turnover intention. The implications of the results are thoroughly discussed.

Awareness of occupational health hazards and occupational stress among dental care professionals: Evidence from the GCC region.

A hazardous work environment creates critical concerns, and resultantly, workers may suffer from job-related stress. So, this study aimed at identifying the nature of hazards prevailing in dental hospitals and their role in increasing job-related stress. The study also assumes that awareness of the existence of health hazards and their possible risk will originate the stress. To conduct the study, close-ended questionnaires were administered to 300 workers having more than 1 year of experience in Oral and Dental Health Services provided by the Kingdom of Bahrain. In total, 222 responses with an acceptable level of accuracy were included for statistical treatment. Results confirmed the prevalence of ergonomic, biological, physical, and, to some extent, chemical hazards in the workplace. Results revealed that stress befalls the employees as they know their exposure to these hazards. Ergonomic hazards have the highest prevalence, chemical hazards are the least prevalent, while biological and physical hazards fall in between. This study enriches the related bank of literature by tapping the hazards specifically in the dental hospitals' environment with the degree of intensity of their prevalence within the context at hand. The study of the impact of these workplace health hazards on occupational stress with mediating effect of awareness is also an addition to the existing literature. The findings may help hospital administrators to take correct measures to manage job-related stress that is counterproductive and take remedial steps to mitigate these hazards.

Can’t Shake the Prison Guard Blues: Examining the Effects of Work Stress, Job Satisfaction, Boundary Violations, and the Mistreatment of Inmates on the Depressive Symptomatology of Correctional Officers

Many correctional officers who work in close proximity with inmates are at a heightened risk of experiencing feelings of psychological distress. We analyzed 501 surveys collected from correctional officers within the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to identify characteristics of officers who are likely to exhibit signs of depression. Our findings reveal that female officers, as well as officers who work in higher custody levels, are more likely than other officers to report higher levels of depressive symptomatology. We also found that officers who experienced high levels of self-reported job-related stress were more likely to suffer from depression. Officers with attitudes favorable to the mistreatment of inmates also reported higher levels of depression. Officers who perceived their coworkers were engaging in boundary violations were no more or less likely to exhibit signs of depression. Given these findings, we conclude that organizational and supervisory support, coupled with positive incentives and employee assistance programs, may help mitigate the risks of depression for correctional officers, thereby making these salient staff more efficient and effective in the prison workplace.

Understanding the Role of Job Stress in Safety Climate in a Dairy Industry using Structural Equation Modeling

Background and purpose: The safety climate refers to employees’ perception of safety which can be affected by job-related stress in the workplace. This study aimed to assess the safety climate and investigate the relationship between job stress factors and safety climate dimensions in a dairy industry.
 Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. The data was collected using two self-report questionnaires including the Nordic Safety Climate Questionnaire (NOSACQ-50) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) indicator tool. After removing the incomplete questionnaires, 164 questionnaires were selected for statistical analysis. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to investigate the association of the study variables.
 Results: Most job stress factors and all were correlated to the safety climate dimensions. The highest correlation was detected between job stress factors and dimension of management safety priority, commitment, and competence. Among job stress factors, role (r=0.522, P<0.001) and managerial support (r=0.452, P<0.001) had the highest relationship with this dimension. SEM showed job stress had a significant effect on safety climate (B = 0.52, P < 0.001).
 Conclusion: The job stress dimensions could be effective in the safety climate. Besides, management and peer support as well as high job demands could decrease stress. Thus, improvement of job stress could promote employees’ safety behaviors and improve their perception of the organization’s safety management system.

EP04.02-006 Burn-Out Syndrome: Neglected Syndrome Among Health Care Professionals Managing Lung Cancer Patients

Although high prevalence in healthcare professionals (HCP) and its dependence on work related stressors is shown in many researches and can lead to serious consequences on individual and organizational levels Burn-out syndrome (BS) is still neglected. The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of BS among healthcare professionals (HCP) treating Lung cancer (LC) patients, its correlation to psychological distress and determination of significant job related stressors.

Australian cancer nurses' experiences of burnout: Exploring the job demands and job resources of metropolitan cancer nurses during 2019-2020.

Existing studies that seek to understand nurses' experiences of burnout are dominated by cross-sectional, quantitative survey designs employing predetermined measures, often overlooking important job-related stressors that can be highly dependent on industry and professional contexts. Cancer nurses are a group of professionals who warrant special attention, as burnout in this profession is often attributed to high job demands and the challenge of caring for a vulnerable cohort of patients. A deeper understanding of the job demands associated with cancer nursing is required to provide insights about the work experiences of cancer nurses and identify aspects that mitigate burnout and stress. This study describes the antecedents of burnout among Australian cancer nurses by focusing on the demands and resources inherent in their work. We aim to build on the existing literature by identifying job resources that may serve to mitigate the antecedents of burnout. An in-depth interview study of cancer nurses across a spectrum of age and experience in Australian metropolitan public health care services was conducted over a 2-year period that coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic. The job demands and resources model framed this study of job-related factors associated with burnout and conversely job resources that may foster work engagement. Patient aggression, workload, emotional demands, and abusive peers and managers were reported as distinct job demands, whereas job significance and supportive peers who demonstrated leadership, along with task variety, were identified as job resources. Australian cancer nurses work in an environment where job demands are increasingly disproportionate to job resources, leading to significant risk of burnout. Our study identifies modifiable strategies for improving work conditions for this group who play a critical role in the health care system.

Measurement of stress among marine engineers: a methodological intervention

Stress measurement has been an issue on the backburner for maritime sector. In this sector, job related stress has been considered as a way of life. With the onset of pandemic, understanding stress and its management on board ships has become a challenge and of paramount significance to seafarers and shipping companies. Extended contracts of employment, constraints on ships, work fatigue, away from family have all highlighted the need for scientific research on understanding stress on board ships, particularly during challenging times. Most of the studies on stress management and measurement among seafarers employ generalized stress management techniques which do not illuminate sector specific stressors, particularly during uncertain times like Covid-19, let along illuminating general job related stressors. Lack of scientific understanding of stress and stressors in maritime sector adds on to this challenge and thus calls for a sector specific methodological intervention to understanding of stress and stressors among seafarers. In this backdrop, based on previous evidences and discussion with seafarers, a methodology is developed to use a structured questionnaire covering stressors like job itself, company policies, planning activities, away from family, cultural differences and lack of socialization. Since pandemic posed dynamic constraints in the maritime ecosystem, such a structured questionnaire would help in understanding stress and stressor among marine engineers during Covid-19 and facilitate in the development of appropriate stress management strategies by firms in maritime sector. Reliability and validity of the questionnaire has been checked.

Relationship between Salivary Cortisol, Salivary Immunoglobulin A, Serum Oxidative Stress Indices, and Job Stress among Healthcare Workers in A Nigerian Tertiary Hospital

Background: Healthcare workers (HCWs) are highly susceptible to job-related and psychological stress. The current study evaluated the physiological reactions to stress and its biochemical correlates which could add objective evidence to a perception of job stress among HCWs. Methodology: This was a prospectively designed cross-sectional study to compare stress markers amongst 84 healthy male HCW in a tertiary hospital. They were recruited from various hospital units and categorized as rated by survey responses using Karasek’s Job Content Questionnaires as follows: (1) based on job demand (JD): high and low JD; (2) based on job control (JC): low and high JC; (3) based on job strain (JS): no and high JS. Stress markers evaluated were salivary cortisol, salivary immunoglobulin A (IgA), and oxidative stress indices (Malondialdehyde [MDA], Ascorbic Acid, and Total Antioxidant Capacity [TAC]). All laboratory analyses including statistical protocols were carried out according to well-established standard guidelines. Result: Salivary cortisol was higher in low JC than high JC (p=0.003) subgroups while salivary IgA was higher in high JS compared to the no JS (p=0.041) subgroups. Additionally, JC inversely correlated (r= -0.268; p=0.014) with salivary cortisol. However, other biochemical variables did not differ significantly across categorized groups. However, while the medical doctors had higher MDA compared to other HCWs, the radiographers had higher TAC compared to others; this may indicate oxidative stress among these HCWs (p<0.05). Conclusion: From the foregoing, HCWs with high JS are under higher stress with low JC which stimulates the HPA axis as an adaptive mechanism. Hence, efforts to promote low JS with high JC are highly recommended among HCWs for optimal service delivery.