Study On The Norm Of Occupational Stress And Its Health Effects Among Primary And Middle School Teachers In Nanchang City

Objectives: Along with the deepening of primary and secondary education reform inChina, primary and middle school teachers are suffering higher and higher workingpressure. Heavy teaching workload and intense competition can easily lead to highlevel of occupational stress, and thus the physical and mental health of primary andsecondary school teachers will be affected. This study aims to develop the norm ofoccupational stress in primary and secondary schoolteachers in Nanchang City and toexplore its influential factors and health effects.Methods: By the method of multi-stage sampling,1438teachers from22primary andmiddle schools in urban and suburban areas of Nanchang City were sampled in2012.Their occupational stress levels were measured by Occupational StressInventory-Revised edition (OSI-R), which includes Personal Strain Questionnaire(PSQ), Occupational Role Questionnaire (ORQ) and Personal ResourcesQuestionnaire (PRQ). PSQ includes Vocational Strain (VS), Psychological Strain(PSY), Interpersonal Strain (IS) and Physical Strain (PHS). ORQ includes RoleOverload (RO), Role Insufficiency (RI), Role Ambiguity (RA), Role Boundary (RB),Responsibility (R) and Physical Environment (PE). PRQ includes Recreation (RE),Self-Care (SC), Social Support (SS) and Rational Coping (RC). At the same time,general characteristics questionnaires were devised to collect their demographic dataand occupation characteristics. A self-made sub-health scale was used to assess thestatus of sub-health of the teachers. Their working ability and diseases were assessedby Comprehensive Work Ability Index (CWAI). The current situation of theoccupational stress in those teachers and the influential factors and health effect ofoccupational stress were described and analyzed.Results:①The scores of PSQ, ORQ and PRQ in this study were93.4±20.1,147.0±24.0and126.7±18.1respectively. The PSQ score was higher than that in thenorm of occupational stress in Southwest China, while the ORQ and PRQ scoreswere lower (P<0.05).②The change laws of the OSI-R score among primary andmiddle school teachers were as following: Female teachers had higher PSY scores than male teachers (P<0.05). Teachers who had poorer financial conditions, olderages, higher degrees or had no child had higher scores in PSQ and its subentries(P<0.05). Teachers who had teaching ages from6to20years tended to have higherscores in PSQ and its subentries (P<0.05). Teachers who were unmarried or who wereresponsible for senior class students had higher scores in all subentries except PSY(P<0.05), and their PSQ, PSY, IS and PHS scores were positively correlated withschool scale (P<0.05). Teachers with lower titles had higher scores in VS and IS(P<0.05). Class teachers had higher scores in all subentries except IS (P<0.05).③Results of the influential factors in the occupational stress: PSQ scores had a positivecorrelation with ORQ scores (P<0.01), of which RB had the closest relation to PSQ(P<0.01). PSQ scores had a negative correlation with PRQ scores (P<0.01), of whichRC had the closest relation to PSQ (P<0.01). The results of regression analysisshowed that the main risk factors of occupational stress were financial conditions,weekly workload, teaching grade, gender, marriage status, RO, RI, RA, RB, R, andPE (P<0.05), while the relieving factors were SC and RC (P<0.05).④Results of thehealth effects of occupational stress: The incidence of sub-health had a positivecorrelation with the occupational stress level and the level of working ability had anegative correlation with the occupational stress level (P<0.05). The higher teachers’occupational stress level was, the higher the incidence of obesity, menoxenia,gastrointestinal ulcers, chronic bronchitis, sphagitis, cervical spondylosis orlow backpain was (P<0.05).Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that the primary and secondary schoolteachers’ occupational stress in Nanchang city was at a severe level. Interventions inoccupational stress for teachers should be carried out primarily on the teachers whoare female, older ages, higher degrees, unmarried, in large school, in key school, inpoorer financial conditions or had no child. Effectiveintervention measures inoccupational stress include reducing teacher’s occupational stressors such as RO, RI,RA, RB, R and PE and increasing teacher’s personal resources such as RE, RC, SSand RC. The prevention of the symptoms or diseases caused by high degree ofoccupational stress, such as sub-health, reduced working capacity, obesity, menoxenia,gastrointestinal ulcers, chronic bronchitis, sphagitis, cervical spondylosis and lowback pain, should be paid attention to.