Gender, Health and Stress in English University Staff?Exposure or Vulnerability?

Impact of Flexible Work Arrangements, Self-Efficacy, and Barriers on Daily Physical Activity Among University Staff

BACKGROUND

Little is known about the link between flexible work arrangements and health behaviors, such as physical activity. This study aimed to explore how self-efficacy and daily barriers to physical activity influence daily levels of physical activity on workdays when university staff members used a flexible work arrangement (flextime or telework).

METHODS

Full-time university staff employees (N = 61, mean age = 41; 89% female) participated in this daily diary study. Participants completed an initial survey followed by daily surveys over the course of one workweek, resulting in 281 diary days.

RESULTS

The most frequently reported barriers to physical activity were as follows: lack of time, feeling tired, and not enough motivation. Multilevel models revealed that as the number of barriers increased, minutes of physical activity significantly decreased. Self-efficacy was not significantly related to daily physical activity. Participants reported fewer minutes of physical activity on flextime workdays compared to days when a flexible work arrangement was not used (ie, traditional workday). Daily use of a flexible work arrangement did not moderate the association between barriers and physical activity.

CONCLUSIONS

This study illustrated the influence of daily barriers and flextime workdays on physical activity levels, which can inform workplace health programs for university staff.

The relationship between occupational stress, psychological distress symptoms, and social support among Jordanian healthcare professionals

Occupational stress is a major problem for healthcare providers, with some professionals experiencing higher numbers of stressful situations than others. Although it is difficult to eliminate stress in professionals' daily lives, providing social support can lower psychological distress symptoms. This study aims to investigate the relationship between occupational stress and social support, and the effects of social support on psychological distress symptoms of healthcare professionals. A cross-sectional descriptive design was utilized. Self-administered questionnaires were completed by a convenience sample of 211 participants (physicians, nurses, and pharmacists) from a Jordanian hospital. Bivariate analyses were used to examine the relationships between the study variables. Multiple regression analyses were used to determine if occupational stress, demographic characteristics, and social support predict depression, anxiety, and stress. Results showed that healthcare professionals with more social support showed less depression than those with a lower score of social support. Females had higher scores of depression and anxiety than males. Pharmacists had significantly higher occupational stress than both nurses and physicians. Occupational stress negatively influences healthcare professionals' mental health. To improve the productivity and psychological wellbeing of healthcare professionals, occupational stress should be diminished by implementing effective management approaches to facilitate social support for healthcare professionals.

The risks and rewards of researching victims of crime

The concept of emotional labour is described as any effort, conscious or not, to change one’s feelings or emotions, thereby offering a useful framework for understanding the experiences of qualitative researchers working within so-called ‘sensitive topics’. Despite this, it has received little research attention in criminology and criminal justice compared to related concepts such as vicarious trauma. Vicarious trauma refers to pervasive, cumulative and permanent changes that occur in a professional’s views of themselves, others and the world around them as a result of exposure to graphic and/or traumatic material. Conducting ‘sensitive topic’ research, such as with victims or offenders of crime, may expose researchers in this field to significant emotion work through engagement with potentially shocking and graphic experiences that are characteristic of serious trauma survivors. Victimisation is thought to be so disruptive because it challenges at a fundamental level our beliefs in a safe and benevolent world, and of ourselves as good (and hence undeserving) people. This article will draw on existing literature and the author’s extensive experiences of conducting in-depth interviews with victims of crime to explore the psychological impact of working closely with survivors of violent crimes. It will then show how the process of vicarious trauma mirrors that of trauma in victim/survivors. It will place this discussion against the backdrop of a rapidly changing and commercialising higher education sector and explore how the increasing pressures and reduced freedoms, in addition to the subject matter we study, require significant emotional labour and place us at a heightened risk for vicarious trauma. Finally, suggestions will be made regarding the best practice to avoid vicarious trauma and why, despite the risk, research in this area is still necessary and rewarding.

Distinct CCL2, CCL5, CCL11, CCL27, IL-17, IL-6, BDNF serum profiles correlate to different job-stress outcomes

Chronic psychosocial stress at workplace is an important factor in the development of physical and mental illness. Objective biological measures of chronic stress are still lacking, but inflammatory response and growth factors are increasingly considered as potential stress biomarkers. Therefore, we investigated the relationship between psychophysical strain and serum levels of 48 chemokines, cytokines and growth factors measured using a multiplex immunoassay, and serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) measured by ELISA. Severity of psychophysical strain was scored in 115 healthy hospital workers using specific scales for anxiety, depression-like emotion, gastrointestinal or cardiac disturbances, and ergonomic dysfunction. Multivariate analysis revealed that higher anxiety scale scores were correlated with lower serum chemokine C-C motif ligand-2 (CCL2/MCP-1), chemokine C-C motif ligand-5 (CCL5/RANTES), chemokine C-C motif ligand-27 (CCL27/CTACK), chemokine C-C motif ligand-11 (CCL11/Eotaxin) and interleukin-6 (IL-6); gastrointestinal disturbances correlated with increased levels of interleukin-17 (IL-17) and reduced CCL11/Eotaxin, CCL27/CTACK and CCL2/MCP-1; while cardiac dysfunctions associate only to reduced CCL27/CTACK, and ergonomic dysfunction correlated with increased BDNF and reduced CCL11/Eotaxin and CCL5/RANTES. Thus, these 7 serum factors may provide a distinct signature for each different stress-related psychophysical outcome giving indications on individual vulnerabilities.

Sheffield Hallam Staff Wellness service: Four-year follow-up of the impact on health indicators

Aims:

Alongside the increasing prevalence of chronic health conditions such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes has been an increase in interventions to reverse these ill-health trends. The aim of this study was to examine the longitudinal impact of the Sheffield Hallam University Staff Wellness Service on health indicators over a five-year period.

Methods:

The Sheffield Hallam Staff Wellness Service was advertised to university employees. Of 2651 employees who have attended the service, 427 respondents (male = 162, female = 265) aged 49.86 ± 12.26 years attended for five years (4 years follow-up). Each year, participants were assessed on a range of health measures (i.e. cardio-respiratory fitness, body mass index, blood pressure, total cholesterol, high-density lipoproteins, lung function and percentage body fat). Participants also received lifestyle advice (based on motivational interviewing) as part of the intervention to either improve, or in some cases maintain, their current health behaviours (e.g. increased physical activity and diet change).

Results:

The wellness service improved staff health for those with an ‘at risk’ health profile from baseline. These improvements were maintained in subsequent follow-up assessments. Improvement from baseline to 1-year follow-up was observed for all health indicators as was the maintenance of this improvement in years 2, 3 and 4.

Conclusions:

The service demonstrates that a university-based wellness service using a combination of motivational interviewing and health screening to elicit behaviour change (and subsequent improvements in health-related outcomes) was successful in improving the health of employees with an ‘at risk’ profile.

Relationship at work as a cause of occupational stress: the case of academic women in Vietnam

BACKGROUND

The present research paper aims to bring deeper understanding and insight to perceptions and experiences of occupational stress from relationships at work in the cultural context of Vietnam. The paper also examines differences in perceptions, experiences of occupational stress from this problem and makes a comparison with perspectives in other cultures.

METHODS

Grounded theory approach is used to study occupational stress by collecting data from in-depth interviews with 42 academic women employed at Vietnamese higher education institutions to understand the meaning, the nature and source of the occupational stress from relationships at work they experience and the impact of occupational stress on their lives.

RESULTS

Cultural factors play an important role in occupational stress. Cultural factors such as power distance and hierarchy influence perception, experiences of occupational stress and the ways occupational stress is responded to. The Vietnamese context differs from other cultural contexts in the range of factors perceived as stressors for Vietnamese women.

CONCLUSION

This paper is the first grounded theory study of occupational stress among women academics in Vietnam that determines that the natural of the relationship at work play an important role in how women understand and respond to occupational stress and supports the growing evidence that occupational stress is common, global but different in other cultures.

Comparison of Coping, Stress, and Life Satisfaction Between Taiwanese and U.S. College Students

Measures of coping resources, perceived stress, and life satisfaction were used to compare 120 Taiwanese men, 387 Taiwanese women, 114 U.S. women, and 264 U.S. men currently in college. While no differences were found in overall coping resources and perceived stress, U.S. students reported greater life satisfaction than Taiwanese students. Models for predicting life satisfaction from perceived stress and coping resources were significant for both genders within each country. Implications for counselors are discussed.

Stress-reduction interventions in an Australian university: a case study

We examined the effects of awareness of stress-reduction interventions on employee well-being and work attitudes using a mixed methods design. Cross-sectional data are presented from 247 employees who completed questionnaires in 2004 at one Australian university. Analyses indicated that employees, who reported that interventions had been undertaken, scored higher on job satisfaction, affective organizational commitment, perceived procedural justice and trust in senior management than those who were not aware of the measures, although they did not differ in psychological strain. Details of the stress-reduction interventions implemented by the Occupational Health and Safety department at the university are also reported. Thematic analyses of the perceived causes of both decreases and increases in stress for employees showed that staff reported workload and staffing pressures as key sources of increases in stress. On the other hand, new supervisors and/or management were identified as sources of decreased stress. Areas for consideration in future efforts to develop and refine stress interventions are also discussed.

Work stress among university teachers: gender and position differences

The aim of this study was to investigate exposure to stress at work in university teachers and see if there were differences between men and women as well as between positions. The study was carried out online and included a representative sample of 1,168 teachers employed at universities in Croatia. This included all teaching positions: assistants (50%), assistant professors (18%), associate professors (17%), and full professors (15%). Fifty-seven percent of the sample were women. The participants answered a questionnaire of our own design that measured six groups of stressors: workload, material and technical conditions at work, relationships with colleagues at work, work with students, work organisation, and social recognition and status. Women reported greater stress than men. Assistant professors, associate professors, and full professors reported greater stress related to material and technical conditions of work and work organisation than assistants, who, in turn, found relationships with colleagues a greater stressor. Full professors, reported lower exposure to stress at work than associate professors, assistant professors, and assistants.

Sportaktivität als Stresspuffer

Zusammenfassung: Die Rolle des Sports als Strategie der Stressregulation ist noch wenig systematisch erforscht. Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird die sog. „Stresspuffer-Hypothese der Sportaktivität“ genauer geprüft. Sie besagt, dass Sportaktivität die negativen Auswirkungen von Stress auf die Gesundheit „abzupuffern“ vermag. Bis heute ist diese Hypothese noch nicht überzeugend empirisch belegt, vor allem mangelt es an längsschnittlicher und experimenteller Evidenz. In der vorliegenden Studie wird die Stresspuffer-Hypothese sowohl quer- als auch längsschnittlich überprüft: N = 427 Angestellte machten an zwei Messzeitpunkten im Abstand von zehn Monaten Angaben zu ihrer seelischen Gesundheit, ihrem arbeitsbedingten Stresserleben und ihrer Sportaktivität. Die Ergebnisse bestätigen den Stresspuffereffekt auf der Ebene der Querschnittsanalysen – bei Betrachtung des aktuellen Stresserlebens und des aktuellen Sporttreibens – nur teilweise, auf der Ebene der Längsschnittanalysen – bei Betrachtung des chronischen Stresserlebens und des chronischen Sporttreibens – dagegen in vollem Umfang. Die Befunde deuten darauf hin, dass das habituelle Sportverhalten insbesondere bei zeitlich andauernden Stressbedingungen seine gesundheitsprotektive Wirkung zu entfalten vermag.