•Head Start teachers (N=1001) in Pennsylvania completed a web-based survey.•Three types of workplace stress were assessed: high demands, low control, and low support.•Teachers reported on the quality ...of their relationships with children.•More workplace stress was associated with greater conflict in teacher–children relationships.
The quality of the relationships between teachers and young children affects children's social and emotional development and their academic success. Little is known, however, about whether the amount of workplace stress experienced by early childhood educators impacts the quality of their relationships with young children. The purpose of this study was to determine whether workplace stress was associated with poorer quality teacher–children relationships in Head Start. Across 37 Head Start programs in Pennsylvania, 1001 teachers completed an anonymous, web-based survey about workplace stress and the levels of conflict and closeness in their relationships with children in their classrooms. We examined the associations between teacher–children relationship quality and the level of three types of perceived workplace stress: high demands, low control, and low support. Findings indicated that more workplace stress was associated with more conflict in teacher–children relationships. Interventions to address workplace stress should be evaluated for their potential to impact teacher–children relationship quality and children's social–emotional development.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
•ERI and OC were most associated with IMT and fibrinogen.•Sex moderates the association between OC and both IMT and mean BP.•OC moderates the association between ERI and fibrinogen.•‘White coat ...effect’ may explain disparity in ERI and hypertension associations.
Work stress can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease by 50%, with increasing research focusing on the underlying mechanisms responsible for these associations. Our meta-analysis assessed the associations of the effort-reward imbalance (ERI) workplace stress model with indices of cardiovascular disease. The search term ‘effort*reward*imbalance’ produced 22 papers (129 associations, N=93,817) meeting inclusion criteria. Greater ERI was most associated with increased hypertension (r=0.26, p<0.001, N=1180), intima media thickness (r=0.23, p<.001, N=828) and fibrinogen (r=0.13, p=0.03, N=4315). Trait over-commitment was most associated with increased hypertension (r=0.24, p=0.02, N=899) and intima media thickness (r=0.19, p=0.02, N=828). Interventions aimed at reducing the impact of ERI and over-commitment on cardiovascular disease should consider concurrently assessing changes in physiological markers of cardiovascular disease.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
This study explored how the COVID-19 outbreak and arrangements such as remote working and furlough affect work or study stress levels and functioning in staff and students at the University of York, ...UK.
An invitation to participate in an online survey was sent to all University of York staff and students in May-June 2020. We measured stress levels VAS-scale, Perceived Stress Questionnaire (PSQ), mental health anxiety (GAD-7), depression (PHQ-9), physical health (PHQ-15, chronic medical conditions checklist), presenteeism, and absenteeism levels (iPCQ). We explored demographic and other characteristics as factors which may contribute to resilience and vulnerability for the impact of COVID-19 on stress.
One thousand and fifty five staff and nine hundred and twenty five students completed the survey. Ninety-eight per cent of staff and seventy-eight per cent of students worked or studied remotely. 7% of staff and 10% of students reported sickness absence. 26% of staff and 40% of the students experienced presenteeism. 22-24% of staff reported clinical-level anxiety and depression scores, and 37.2 and 46.5% of students. Staff experienced high stress levels due to COVID-19 (66.2%, labeled vulnerable) and 33.8% experienced low stress levels (labeled resilient). Students were 71.7% resilient vs. 28.3% non-resilient. Predictors of vulnerability in staff were having children OR = 2.23; CI (95) = 1.63-3.04 and social isolation OR = 1.97; CI (95) = 1.39-2.79 and in students, being female OR = 1.62; CI (95) = 1.14-2.28, having children OR = 2.04; CI (95) = 1.11-3.72, and social isolation OR = 1.78; CI (95) = 1.25-2.52. Resilience was predicted by exercise in staff OR = 0.83; CI (95) = 0.73-0.94 and in students OR = 0.85; CI (95) = 0.75-0.97.
University staff and students reported high psychological distress, presenteeism and absenteeism. However, 33.8% of staff and 71.7% of the students were resilient. Amongst others, female gender, having children, and having to self-isolate contributed to vulnerability. Exercise contributed to resilience.
Resilience occurred much more often in students than in staff, although psychological distress was much higher in students. This suggests that predictors of resilience may differ from psychological distress
. Hence, interventions to improve resilience should not only address psychological distress but may also address other factors.
The purpose of this paper is to quantify the factors that disrupt the mental health of kindergarten (KG) teachers. For this, the researchers conducted an electronic survey of preschool teachers (
= ...587) on a popular educational platform with the Symptom Checklist-90-R and content analysis of interviews in practicing KG teachers (
= 105) with an open discussion of the main stressors during professional activities. Self-reports indicated that depression, interpersonal sensitivity, and anxiety were the main mental health symptoms. ANOVA has revealed that total teaching experience is a statistically significant factor for the mental health of KG teachers:
(2.60) = 5.99. According to respondents, the main stressors included concern for the children's health, fear of injuries, and difficulties in communicating with parents. The synthesis of results allowed for proposing six specific steps for mental health care in KG teachers. The findings are important for administrators and officials of preschool education. The proposed approach can become a theoretical basis for finding ways of mental health care for practicing teachers in further research.
We use coping theory to explore an underlying relationship between employee stress caused by burdensome, complex, and ambiguous information security requirements (termed "security-related stress" or ...SRS) and deliberate information security policy (ISP) violations. Results from a survey of 539 employee users suggest that SRS engenders an emotion-focused coping response in the form of moral disengagement from ISP violations, which in turn increases one's susceptibility to this behavior. Our multidimensional view of SRS-comprised of security-related overload, complexity, and uncertainty-offers a new perspective on the workplace environment factors that foster noncompliant user behavior and inspire cognitive rationalizations of such behavior. The study extends technostress research to the information systems security domain and provides a theoretical framework for the influence of SRS on user behavior. For practitioners, the results highlight the incidence of SRS in organizations and suggest potential mechanisms to counter the stressful effects of information security requirements.
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BFBNIB, IZUM, KILJ, NMLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
•Early childhood teachers report high levels of adverse childhood experiences.•Adverse childhood experiences harm teacher resilience and classroom behavior.•Addressing trauma-specific stress is ...important for teacher interventions.
Early childhood teachers play a critical role in supporting young children's cognitive, social, and emotional development. Unfortunately, teachers’ abilities to promote young children's well-being can be hindered by their own stress. Teachers can experience both workplace stressors as well as chronic stressors from adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Very little is known about whether different sources of teacher's stress have independent effects on their functioning. The present study examines whether workplace stress and history of ACEs are unique or redundant predictors of teacher resilience and classroom behavior, including teacher-child interaction quality, child classroom misbehavior, and staff affect regulation. Data were collected from female teachers (N = 718) across 101 childcare centers. Teachers (Mage = 39.26, SD = 13.69) completed self-report assessments on their history of ACEs, workplace stress, and resilience. For a subsample of teachers (n = 58) classroom behavior was observationally coded in the classroom. Controlling for student-teacher ratio and center type, both a higher number of ACEs and workplace stress were associated with lower levels of resilience. Only a history of ACEs was associated with observed teacher-child interaction quality and child classroom misbehavior, not workplace stress. Although there are some limitations to the measurement of retrospective ACEs, the present study offers some promising findings regarding the impact of ACEs on teacher functioning. The present findings suggest that addressing trauma-specific stress is important for early childhood teacher interventions, beyond general relaxation and stress management strategies.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
PurposeExtant literature has demonstrated connections between workplace environment and worker stress, as well as between worker stress and direct service provision. Current research on direct ...service provision to people experiencing homelessness, however, has not established a clear association between the workplace environment and the quality of direct services provided to clients receiving case management. This study extends the existing research by establishing connections between all of these constructs, specifically within the context of case management services to people experiencing homelessness.MethodFor this mixed methods study, the authors sampled 16 case managers providing direct services to people experiencing homelessness in one homelessness services organization (HSO) in a large metropolitan area. Through focus group interviews and web-based surveys, the authors collected data on the workplace environment, worker stress, and direct service provision. The authors then analyzed the data using a concurrent nested approach for mixed methods analysis.ResultsThe results of this study suggest that case managers in homelessness HSOs often experience a stressful workplace environment due to workplace cultural norms, inefficient processes, and high expectations placed upon them by both clients and administrators. The stressful workplace environment can interact with client trauma to produce secondary traumatic stress in direct service providers, which then influences client-case manager rapport development.DiscussionStudy findings point toward specific policies and practices that homelessness HSOs ought to adopt in order to mitigate case managers’ workplace stress and secondary traumatic stress, and negative influences of these stressors on rapport development between case managers and clients experiencing homelessness.
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BFBNIB, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
This paper examines the impact of work in a pandemic context on workers' mental health. Psychosocial risks have always been a challenging aspect of workplace health and safety practices. Moreover, ...the COVID-19 pandemic has affected workplaces in all sectors causing unexpected changes in work organization and working conditions, leading to the emergence of new psychosocial risks for health and wellbeing of workers. This mini-review aims to identify the main work stressors during pandemic period and related mental health problems to suggest recommendations and adjust health and safety practices regarding workplace mental health. A literature search has been performed using MEDLINE/PubMed, ResearchGate and Google Scholar databases, selecting articles focusing on work-related stressors and workers' mental health problems related to the pandemic. Specific psychosocial risks have been identified, including fear of contagion, telework-related risks, isolation and stigmatization, rapid digitalization demands, job insecurity, elevated risk of violence at work or home, and work-life imbalance, among others. All those risks can lead to elevated levels of stress among workers and affect their mental health and wellbeing, especially in terms of psychological distress, anxiety, and depression. As one of the social determinants of health, the workplace has an important and moderating role in workers' health. Therefore, in the pandemic context more than ever health protection practices at the workplace should be devoted to mental health problems. Recommendations provided in this study are expected to contribute to workplace practices to preserve and promote workers' mental health.
The scientific literature on workplace interventions that target individual-level determinants of mental health for primary or secondary prevention is mixed, with many studies failing to show ...statistically significant, sizeable effects. A methodological characteristic that may explain these mixed findings is fidelity, a multidimensional construct that captures the extent to which an intervention is implemented as intended, in a standardized manner. In this narrative review, we examined the extent to which workplace mental health intervention studies try to enhance or measure the twelve different dimensions of fidelity that have been identified. We conducted comprehensive searches of MEDLINE, Embase, and PsycINFO. Following review, 370 articles were selected for inclusion, of which only 21% explicitly mentioned fidelity. About two-thirds of the articles considered less than half of all relevant fidelity dimensions. Most studies tried to enhance rather than measure fidelity. Only a handful of included studies (n=7, 2%) measured half or more of all relevant fidelity dimensions. Some fidelity dimensions (e.g. theoretical) were considered less often than others (e.g. receipt and enactment). Our review shows that fidelity is insufficiently considered in current workplace mental health literature. We discuss implications for internal and external validity, scalability, and directions for future research.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, FSPLJ, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VSZLJ
Due to the unstable, turbulent socioeconomic and political environment in which organizations now operate, stress has become an inseparable companion of human beings in the work process. Psychosocial ...risks are among the most important challenges currently facing employers regarding human resources management and maintaining satisfactory organizational performance. In this context, this study aims to identify contemporarily relevant employee stress management competencies and the actions employers should take to support their development. To do so, it employs desk research and descriptive analysis, undertaking an analysis of the literature on the subject and available secondary data. It identifies three fundamental stress management challenges facing managers and employee teams. For each of these challenges, the article identifies employees’ competencies that need to be improved and highlights related possible actions by employers.
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