Occupational stress in working women: study of individual, family, and occupational correlates

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Occupational stress can be understood as a set of psychological worries or psychological sufferings linked to work experiences. OBJECTIVE: To identify individual, family and occupational variables that establish relationship with occupational stress in women. METHOD: The sample consisted of 75 women from different occupations and organizations. The summary version of the Job Stress Scale, the Human Resources Policy and Practice Scale and two scales on work-family interfaces were applied. For the analysis of the data, descriptive statistics were used for the general characterization, and then Pearson correlation analyzes were used to verify the relationships established between occupational stress and the other variables of the study. RESULTS: the mean of occupational stress of the women participating in the study can be classified as moderate (M = 2.12, SD = 0.36). In the correlations, it was observed that, among the personal variables investigated, schooling was the only one that presented a significant result (r = -0.260, p <0.05). In relation to the family variables, it was observed that both dimensions of the work-family conflict presented statistically significant correlations between occupational stress (r = 0.492 and 0.278, for work-family interference and family-work interference, respectively, p <0, 01). Finally, among the organizational variables considered in the study, HR practices aimed at promoting work involvement and offering good working conditions presented negative and significant correlations with occupational stress (r = 0.618 and 0.321, respectively, p <0.01). CONCLUSION: variables involving perception issues showed more important relationships with occupational stress than more concrete variables.