Relationships between occupational functioning and stress among radio journalists--Assessment by means of the Psychosocial Risk Scale.
OBJECTIVE
Job characteristics and the consequences of everyday stress among radio journalists who are not exposed to traumatic events have not been studied sufficiently before. We aimed at determining the most common job characteristics and their stressfulness; relationships between stress exposure, health and occupational functioning; differences between radio journalists and other journalists, and also the psychosocial risk for health and functioning in this group.


METHODS
The studied group involved 208 journalists, 134 of whom worked in radio stations. The respondents filled in the Psychosocial Risks Scale (PRS) developed by the Department of Health and Work Psychology of the Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Łódź, Poland.


RESULTS
Requirement of mental effort and readiness to response quickly for most of the time as well as limited possibilities for promotion were the most frequent journalists' complaints. We confirmed that higher levels of stress resulted in worse functioning--the radio journalists who experienced lower stress assessed their health status and ability to work better, were more satisfied with particular aspects of their work, and were more involved in their work. They also presented a significantly lower turnover intention. Moreover, the radio journalists were more involved in their work than other journalists, but experienced lower satisfaction, took more sick leaves and had more days of absence.


CONCLUSIONS
Well-known relationships between stress level, satisfaction and occupational functioning were confirmed. The most important conclusion refers to the fact that psychosocial risks and stress analysis should be based on the understanding of specificity of each occupation or even position. It is so, because the same job characteristic may pose a challenge for one person, while for another--it can result in extreme discomfort and anxiety--such an attitude broadens understanding of the phenomenon. We also confirmed that the PRS is a well-designed method, appropriate to investigate an individual perception of job environment and its stressfulness. Future research on causal relationships between the variables is recommended.
Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Łódź, Poland (Department of Health and Work Psychology). anajder@imp.lodz.pl.
Anna
A
Najder
Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Łódź, Poland (Department of Health and Work Psychology). merecz@imp.lodz.pl.
Dorota
D
Merecz-Kot
Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Łódź, Poland (Department of Health and Work Psychology). awojcik@imp.lodz.pl.
Aleksandra
A
Wójcik
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D020452:Journalism / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D016272:Occupational Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011845:Radio; D012307:Risk Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D000078329:Workforce
job content; job context; occupational stress; pathologies in relationships; psychosocial risk factors; radio journalists