“A STUDY TO EVALUATE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF INFORMATION BOOKLET (IB) ON KNOWLEDGE REGARDING THE PREVENTION AND RELIEF OF OCCUPATIONAL STRESS IN MARRIED WORKING WOMEN IN SELECTED SHOPPING CENTERS, BANGALORE.”

PROFORMA FOR REGISTRATION OF SUBJECT FOR DISSERTATION

Miss. DHANYA DINESH

1st YEAR MSc NURSING

PSYCHIATRIC NURSING

JUPITER COLLEGE OF NURSING

No.225.B, NELAMANGALA

BANGALORE

2012-2013

RAJIV GANDHI UNIVERSITY OF HEALTH SCIENCES

BANGALORE, KARNATAKA.

RAJIV GANDHI UNIVERSITY OF HEALTH SCIENCES

BANGALORE, KARNATAKA.

PROFORMA FOR REGISTRATION OF

SUBJECTS FOR DISSERTATION

1 / NAME OF THE CANDIDATE AND ADDRESS / Miss. DHANYA DINESH
1ST YEAR M.SC. NURSING,
JUPITER COLLEGE OF NURSING,
NELAMANGALA,
BANGALORE.
2 / NAME OF THE INSTITUTION / JUPITER COLLEGE OF NURSING,
NELAMANGALA,
BANGALORE
3 / COURSE OF THE STUDY AND SUBJECT / 1st YEAR M.Sc NURSING
PSYCHIATRIC NURSING
4 / DATE OF ADMISSION TO THE COURSE / 01-06-2012
5 / TITLE OF THE TOPIC
“A STUDY TO EVALUATE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF INFORMATION BOOKLET (IB) ON KNOWLEDGE REGARDING THE PREVENTION AND RELIEF OF OCCUPATIONAL STRESS IN MARRIED WORKING WOMEN IN SELECTED SHOPPING CENTERS, BANGALORE.”

6. BRIEF RESUME OF THE INTENDED WORK

INTRODUCTION

“Stress is nothing more than a socially acceptable form of mental illness.”

Richard Carlson

"Occupational stress" is the harmful physical and emotional responses that can happen when there is a conflict between job demands on the employee and the amount of control an employee has over meeting these demands. In general, the combination of high demands in a job and a low amount of control over the situation can lead to stress. Stress in the workplace can have many origins or come from one single event. It can impact on both employees and employers alike Occupational stress, hence, is found to be a mental and physical condition that calls in a detrimental effect on the individual's productivity, effectiveness, personal health and quality of work.1

Occupational stress can lead to poor health and even injury. When the demands and pressures placed on individual workers do not match the resources which are available, either from the organization or within the individual, stress can occur and endanger that person’s health and well-being”. Occupational stress is any discomfort which is felt and perceived at a personal level and triggered by instances, events or situations that are too intense and frequent in nature so as to exceed a person’s coping capabilities and resources to handle them adequately (Malta, 2004). Stress has been defined in different ways over the years. Originally, it was conceived of as pressure from the environment, then as strain within the person. The generally accepted definition today is one of interaction between the situation and the individual. It is the psycho-logical and physical state that results when the resources of the individual are not sufficient to cope with the demands and pressures of the situation. Thus, stress is more likely in some situations than others and in some individuals than others. Stress can undermine the achievement of goals, both for individuals and for organizations.2

Occupational stress in case of women results from adverse working conditions, dysfunctional internal and external attitudes that engulf the individual’s coping resources and manifests in acute cognitive, emotional, behavioral or physical problems.

In recent times, women are fast pervading almost all traditionally male-dominated professions and performing effectively. Despite this the traditional mindset where males view professional role as their primary objective and neglect household responsibilities while females view marriage and parenthood as their primary objective persists. There obviously exist several impediments in the journey of career-oriented women: despite being equally qualified and experienced as men women have to struggle hard to reach the top positions in any profession, they are underpaid as compared to men, face discrimination and discouragement both internally and externally, many a times they are forced to restrict themselves to mundane jobs though they can take up better ones and apart from working have to do the large part of household chores as well.

Women who face chronic occupational stress develop psychological problems (depressive symptoms, insomnia, dissatisfaction, irritability, rage, anxiety, fearfulness, feelings of guilt and shame and withdrawal), physical problems (coronary heart disease, changes in blood pressure, body ache, tension headaches, short menstrual cycles, digestive problems and back pain) and dysfunctional behavioral manifestations (sickness absenteeism, changing jobs frequently, career interruption and job withdrawal owing to negative job attitudes).

Though working women are likely to get stressed while striking a balance between multiple roles (worker, spouse, mother, daughter-in-law, daughter) that they are required to do nevertheless they still tend to have better physical and mental health as compared to those women who are housewives. This is because these different roles add to and enrich women’s sense of self and enhance psychological well-being. The strain and stress they experience due to one role is balanced by the satisfaction they obtain from other roles. Many people tend to devalue the work of a homemaker woman taking it for granted and thinking that it can be easily substituted by a housekeeper. Thus, women who are homemakers despite working around the year without a break for even a single day may feel extremely insignificant as the family does not value their contributions. 3

6.1 NEED FOR THE STUDY

Occupational stress can be defined as the physiological and emotional responses that occur when workers perceive an imbalance between their work demands and their capability and / or resources to meet these demands.4

Occupational stress is not a disease. Workers’ response to stressors may be positive or negative depending on the type of demands placed on them, the amount of control they have over the situation, the amount of support they receive and the individual response of the person. In the vast majority of instances people adjust to stressors and are able to continue to perform their normal work.

Occupational stress is a major health problem for both individual employees and organizations. Stress can lead to burnout, illness, labor turnover, absenteeism, poor morale and reduced efficiency and performance.5

A study was conducted to find difference in occupational stress between men and women commercial workers in a supermarket in Yinchuan, Ningxia. METHODS: Totally, 679 commercial workers in a supermarket were investigated with questionnaire of occupational stress indicator (OSI), matched on age, length of service, educational level, marital status and type of work. RESULTS: Score of occupational stress factors, relationships, home/work balance and organizational atmosphere in women commercial workers was 143.48, 30.86, 20.82 and 15.16, respectively, obviously higher than that in men, with 134.89, 28.61, 18.75 and 13.93, respectively. Score of psychological health and satisfaction in women was 39.86 and 14.82, respectively, lower than that in men, with 43.84 and 17.66, respectively, which indicate that occupational stress in women was more severe with a more stressful psychological reaction than in men.6

A descriptive study conducted to find the use of the occupational stress indicator (OSI) in factory workers in china. The purpose of the study was to investigate occupational stress among diverse factory workers (N=342), from three cities of South East China, using the shortened version of the Occupational Stress Indicator (OSI)-2. The results showed that the reliabilities and predictive validity of the OSI-2 subscales and other subscales used for the study were reasonably high. Quite a high percentage of workers perceived high work pressure. The main sources of stress were intrinsic to the job; and the coping strategies that were most frequently used to tackle stress were “control” methods.7

National surveys throughout the 1990s have indicated that 26 % to 40 % or more of workers report high level of stress in workplace. In national surveys, more employed women than men have reported high levels of stress and stress-related illness and 60 % of the women respondents in one survey reported that job stress was their number – one problem. Prolonged exposure to job stressors may produce psychological and physical illness, such as depression and coronary heart disease .8

High-strain jobs have been linked with increased sickness, absenteeism and depressive symptoms among female workers in a wide variety of occupations. There is a significant increase in blood pressure among more highly educated female white collar workers, risk for MI and more than twice the risk for short menstrual cycle.

Personal interview surveys of working conditions, including conditions recognized as risk factors for job stress, were conducted in Member States of the European Union in 1990, 1995, and 2000. Results showed a trend across these periods suggestive of increasing work intensity. In 1990, the percentage of workers reporting that they worked at high speeds at least one-fourth of their working time was 48%, increasing to 54% in 1995 and to 56% in 2000. A substantial percentage of Americans work very long hours. By one estimate, more than 26% of men and more than 11% of women worked 50 hours per week or more in 2000. About one-third of workers report high levels of stress. One-fourth of employees view their jobs as the number one stressor in their lives. Three-fourths of employees believe the worker has more on-the-job stress than a generation ago. Evidence also suggests that stress is the major cause of turnover in organizations.

Women’s stress in the workplace is related more to lack of balance and demands of home and work combined. Consequently, women are likely to have obstacles finding time for their own stress reducing self care.9

Women more commonly report experiencing very high levels of psychological distress and higher levels of psychiatric disabling conditions than men.10

Nurses have a role in all the three aspects of service namely preventive, promotive and curative. The world’s most and major health problems and deaths are preventable through changes in human behaviors. Married working women are playing multiple roles in their day to day life. They are in position to fulfill all the role without disturbing one another. It is quite difficult and stressful also. The main aim of assessing the married working women’s level of occupational stress is to educate them about more relaxation methods to overcome occupational stress thereby we can prevent both physiological and psychological distress of married working women.

Hence the researcher had taken up this study to educate the married working women about more relaxation methods to overcome occupational stress in order to lead happy life.

6.2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Review of literature is a key step in research process. This refers to the activities involved in searching for information on a topic and developing a comprehensive picture of the state of knowledge on that topic. The written literature reviews provides a background for understanding what has already been learned on a topic and illuminates the significance of the new study.

Review of literature is a critical summary of research on a topic of interest generally prepared to put a research problem in context or to identify gaps and weakness in prior studies so as to justify a new investigation.11

Section A: Review of literature related to occupational stress

Section B: Review of literature related to prevention and relief from

occupational stress

Section A: Review of literature related to occupational stress

Emma wadsworth conducted a descriptive study to determine levels of work stress in three ethnic groups. To determine levels of work stress in three ethnic groups, consider the contribution of racial discrimination to the groups' profiles of occupational and demographic associations with stress, and assess the association bore clearly among the woetween work stress and well-being. The researcher used a household quota sample design , and 204 black African–Caribbean, 206 Bangladeshi and 216 white (UK born) working people took part in structured interviews. The study revealed that more black African–Caribbean respondents reported high work stress than either Bangladeshi or white respondents. Reported racial discrimination among black African–Caribbean female respondents was strongly associated with perceived work stress. Among the black African–Caribbean respondents, women who reported experiencing racial discrimination at work had higher levels of psychological distress.12

Susmita Mukopadhy, conducted a descriptive study to assess the working woman difficulties in attempting to fulfill the demands of both worlds, at home and outside, while a housewife may feel tired and irritated with her household chores and financial dependence. All these may cause stress for these groups of women. The present study compares a group of working mothers with their non-working counterparts with respect to: (a) stress level, measured in terms of their anxiety score; and (b) certain general indicators of health including a broad measure of stress. The results show that anxiety and health scores of the two groups of women are similar. Further, the health score and anxiety score seem to be correlated with working mothers.13

Riley A L, Keith VM’s study to examine housewives subjective evaluations of their house work and the subjective evaluation of paid employment among three group of married women professionals, sales-clerical and service-blue collar wives. The results indicate professional wives report fewer symptoms than homemakers, sales-clerical and service collar wives. Difference between professionals and homemakers are largely accounted for by professional women’s more advantaged economic position. Nonprofessional employed women are more depressed than professionals even their disadvantaged working conditions are controlled. The findings in view of research on the stress of combining full – time employment with home making and argue that balancing these two roles may be more difficult for some employed women than for others.14

Mehsin asis’ study to investigate the intensity of organizational role stress among women informational technology professionals in the Indian private sector. Organizational role stress scale is used on a sample of 264 to explore the level of role stress. Resource inadequacy has emerged as the most potent role stressor, followed by role overload and personal inadequacy. The research finds difference in the level of stress between married and unmarried employees on several role stressors. However, level of education does not emerge as a significant differentiator of stressor.15

Dr. Ashok Khurana; Vinu Parida; Shaveta T Grover conducted a study for identifying reasons of occupational stress among women employees. The study stated that women are fast pervading almost all traditionally male-dominated professions and performing effectively. Despite this the traditional mindset where males view professional role as their primary objective and neglect household responsibilities while females view marriage and parenthood as their primary objective persists. There obviously exist several impediments in the journey of career-oriented women: despite being equally qualified and experienced as men women have to struggle hard to reach the top positions in any profession, they are underpaid as compared to men, face discrimination and discouragement both internally and externally, many a times they are forced to restrict themselves to mundane jobs though they can take up better ones and apart from working have to do the large part of household chores as well. Mostly career oriented women are likely to get stressed while striking a balance between multiple roles that they are required to do which result into occupational stress. The study concluded that the major work related stressors and home/social factors which create hurdle for women to pursue in life. These stressors not only confined the boundaries to work but also influence the physical and mental health. 16