scholarly journals Occupational Stressors and Access to COVID-19 Resources among Commuting and Residential Hispanic/Latino Farmworkers in a US-Mexico Border Region

Author(s):  
Annie Jane Keeney ◽  
Amy Quandt ◽  
Mercy D. Villaseñor ◽  
Daniela Flores ◽  
Luis Flores

Hispanic/Latino and migrant workers experience high degrees of occupational stress, constitute most of California’s agricultural workforce, and were among the most impacted populations by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, relatively little is known about the occupational stress experienced by farmworkers who commute daily between the US and Mexico. Occupational stress is considered an imbalance between the demands at work and the capabilities to respond in the context of the workforce. The goal of this study is to determine the type and severity of stressors in daytime and resident farmworkers and how COVID-19 vaccination status contributes to these stressors. Interviews containing the Migrant Farmworker Stress Inventory (MSWSI) were administered to a sample of 199 Hispanic/Latino farmworkers in Imperial County, a multi-billion-dollar agriculture sector in the US. Principal factor analysis differentiated latent factors in the MFSWI. Simple linear regression models and correlations identified associations between MFWSI scores and sample characteristics. The MFWSI reduced to five stressor domains: Health and Well-Being Vulnerabilities, Inadequate Standards of Living/Unknown Conditions of Living, Working Conditions, Working Environment, and Language Barriers. Approximately 40 percent of the respondents reported significant stress levels, with foreign-born (p = 0.014) and older respondents (p = 0.0415) being more likely to experience elevated stress regardless of their nighttime residence. We found that Spanish-language COVID-19 outreach might have been particularly effective for workers who reported high stress from English-language communication (p = 0.001). Moreover, our findings point to the importance of worker and human rights to mitigate the high-stress foreign-born workers who live in Mexico and the US experience.

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr. Utpal Kalita

The elementary school teachers and especially women teachers are facing new challenges and need to be supported by the educational administrators and the state. In order to strengthen the role of women teachers, there is needed to look at well-being and occupation stress of women teachers‟. The present paper is justified to study the well being and occupational stress of women teachers of primary schools. For this, Well Being Scale and Occupational Stress Scale for are used as tools of data collection. Main findings of this study are: (i) very few women teachers fall in low well being level category while majority of the women teachers fall in the category of high well being, (ii) few women teachers fall in high stress level category while majority of the women teachers fall in the category of average as well as less stress well being category and (iii) there exists significant relationship between well being and occupational stress of women teachers of primary schools.


2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 224-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Mohammad Mosadeghrad

Purpose – This study aims to identify the status of occupational stress among a sample of hospital employees in Iran. It further intended to reveal the harmful effects of occupational stress on employees’ health and well-being. Design/methodology/approach – The study used a cross-sectional research design. A validated questionnaire was used to collect data from hospital employees. Findings – Job-related, working environment, interpersonal and organisational factors were related to occupational stress. One-fourth of employees rated their occupational stress high. The major sources of occupational stress were inadequate pay, inequality at work, too much work, staff shortage, poor recognition and promotion, time pressure, job insecurity and lack of management support. High levels of occupational stress have been linked to an increased risk of physical injuries, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, depression and increases in negative personal behaviours such as anger, anxiety and irritability. Occupational stress was positively associated with employees’ turnover intentions. Research limitations/implications – The findings of this study are not generalisable to the wider population of hospital employees in Iran due to the small sample size. Thus, future research should involve additional samples. Practical implications – The study has practical relevance for designing and implementing strategies to decrease occupational stress among hospital employees. Originality/value – This article contributes to health care theory and practise by identifying factors contributing to employees’ occupational stress and examining the association between occupational stress and two important employee outcomes – health status and turnover intention.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 108-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald Kerwin ◽  
Robert Warren

Executive Summary This article examines the ability of immigrants to integrate and to become full Americans. Naturalization has long been recognized as a fundamental step in that process and one that contributes to the nation’s strength, cohesion, and well-being. To illustrate the continued salience of citizenship, the article compares selected characteristics of native-born citizens, naturalized citizens, legal noncitizens (most of them lawful permanent residents [LPRs]), and undocumented residents. It finds that the integration, success, and contributions of immigrants increase as they advance toward naturalization, and that naturalized citizens match or exceed the native-born by metrics such as a college education, self-employment, average personal income, and homeownership. It finds that: Naturalized citizens enjoy the same or higher levels of education, employment, work in skilled occupations, personal income, and percentage above the poverty level compared to the native-born population. At least 5.2 million current US citizens — 4.5 million children and 730,000 adults — who are living with at least one undocumented parent 1 obtained US citizenship by birth; eliminating birthright citizenship would create a permanent underclass of US-born denizens in the future. Requiring medical insurance would negatively affect immigrants seeking admission and undocumented residents who ultimately qualify for a visa. About 51 percent of US undocumented residents older than age 18 lack health insurance. In 2017, about 1.2 million undocumented residents lived with 1.1 million eligible-to-naturalize relatives. If all the members of the latter group naturalized, they could petition for or expedite the adjustment or immigration (as LPRs) of their undocumented family members, including 890,000 “immediate relatives.” Their naturalization could put 11 percent of the US undocumented population on a path to permanent residency. The article also explores a contradiction: that the administration’s “America first” ideology obscures a set of policies that impede the naturalization process, devalue US citizenship, and prioritize denaturalization. The article documents many of the ways that the Trump administration has sought to revoke legal status, block access to permanent residence and naturalization, and deny the rights, entitlements, and benefits of citizenship to certain groups, particularly US citizen children with undocumented parents. It also offers estimates and profiles of the persons affected by these measures, and it rebuts myths that have buttressed the administration’s policies. For example, the Trump administration and restrictionist legislators have criticized the US immigration system’s emphasis on family reunification for its supposed failure to produce skilled workers. Yet the article finds that: The current immigration system, which prioritizes the admission of the nuclear family members of US citizens and LPRs, yields a legal foreign-born population that has occupational skills equal to those of the native-born population. The legal foreign-born population living in 24 US states and Washington, DC, and those from 94 source countries 2 have higher percentages of skilled workers than the overall population of native-born workers.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tarlika L Zalawadia

The present investigation was to compare the relationship between occupational stress and psychological well-being among Private and Public Sector Employee. The sample consisted of 120 male and female Private and Public Sector Employee working at various manufacturing industries in Rajkot city. Srivastava & Singh’s (1984) “Occupational stress Scale” and Bhogle & Prakash’s (1995) “Psychological will-being Questionnaire” were administrated to them. Karl Pearson’s correlation method yielded negative and significant correlation between occupational stress and psychological well-being among Private and Public Sector Employee. Moreover high-stress group has been found to have higher correlation between occupational stress and psychological well-being than moderate stress group and low stress group.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 21-40
Author(s):  
Hirbod Norouzianpour

Stress is one issue that affects the health and well-being of every building occupant. The negative effects of stress are more pronounced in workplaces, where stress can act as a major agent of disease and an impediment to employee productivity and satisfaction. The underlying causes of occupational stress are varied and include job insecurity, extended hours, excessive workload, altercations within the organization, tight deadlines, changes in responsibilities, and lack of autonomy, among others. One of the factors that can contribute to overall occupational stress is the working environment itself—a factor that can be mitigated by design. While occupational stress may arise from a multiplicity of causes, designers have numerous interventions they can employ to decrease it. The literature on occupational health, well-being, satisfaction, and productivity is broad and multifaceted; however, this paper is limited to exploring stress factors that correlate with the built environment and focuses on employees who are experiencing a high rate of stress in office buildings as the target group. To address these issues, supporting literature was explored to identify environmental interventions that could reduce stress or enhance the stress-coping abilities of workers in offices by improving the environmental quality of the built environment. This article explores the following questions: How does space cause people to experience mental stress? In what ways can the built environment itself be a generator of stress? What are the main environmental factors in offices that can mitigate the stress levels of employees or help them to recover more easily from work-related stress? To answer these questions, it is necessary to understand the causes and mechanisms of chronic stress, including work-related stressors, and to identify the factors in the built environment that can be associated with occupational stress. The present paper is based on concurrent analyses of supporting literature in the rather different fields of architecture, public health, psychology, management, and environmental studies. The outcome is an identified set of practical strategies that provide solutions for healthier and more productive workplaces. By concentrating on measures that can reduce employee stress levels, these strategies can be used as a source for evidence-based workplace designs.


Circulation ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 141 (Suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Olatokunbo Osibogun ◽  
Oluseye Ogunmoroti ◽  
Lena Mathews ◽  
Victor Okunrintemi ◽  
Martin Tibuakuu ◽  
...  

Background: Greater acculturation is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, little is known about the association between acculturation and ideal cardiovascular health (CVH) as measured by the American Heart Association’s Life’s Simple 7 (LS7) metric. We investigated the association between acculturation and ideal CVH among a multi-ethnic cohort of United States (US) adults free of clinical CVD at baseline. Methods: This is a cross-sectional analysis of 6,506 adults aged 45-84 years from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. The independent variables were measures of acculturation [birthplace, language spoken at home and years lived in the US (foreign-born participants)]. The primary dependent variable was the CVH score derived from the LS7 metrics and the total CVH score ranged from 0-14 points. Scores of 0-8 indicate inadequate, 9-10 average and 11-14 optimal CVH. We used multivariable logistic and multiple linear regression models to examine the association between acculturation and CVH, adjusting for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, income and health insurance. Results: The mean age (SD) was 62 (10) years and 53% were women. US-born participants had lower odds of having optimal CVH scores [prevalence odds ratio (POR) 0.63 (0.50-0.79), Table ] compared to foreign-born participants. Participants who spoke Chinese and other foreign languages at home had higher odds of having optimal CVH compared to those who spoke English [POR 1.91 (1.08-3.36) & 1.65 (1.04-2.63), respectively]. Among foreign-born participants, years lived in the US was associated with a decrease in CVH score [β coefficient -0.01 (-0.02, -0.01)]. Conclusion: Greater US acculturation was associated with poorer CVH. This finding suggests that promotion of ideal CVH should be encouraged among immigrant populations since more years lived in the US is associated with a decline in CVH score.


Author(s):  
Suresh Lukose ◽  
Abdul Azeez E.P.

Nurses are identified as one of the professional groups with high level of job related stress and related issues. The magnitude of the problem this segment faces is very intensive as a large number of them are women. They are victimized for multiple roles in the home and hospital. Stressors for nurses are always been identified with workload, dual role and pressures which are associated with demands of the existing working environment. The nature of illness/diseases a nurse dealing with has significant effects on the stress and mental health level. Healthcare professionals dealing with psychiatric illness and other chronic/traumatic conditions faces more stress while comparing to the other domains of healthcare. The present study is a cross sectional hospital based study carried out at four centres and 100 samples were collected by judgmental sampling method which consisted of 50 female nursing staff from general hospital and same number from psychiatric hospitals. A socio-demographic data sheet along with General Health Questionnaire was administered and those who have satisfactory health have been considered as further samples. Mental health, stress level, and attitude towards mental illness were analyzed. The results shows that psychiatric nursing staff scored higher in overall occupational stress index and in the subs-domains of role overload, role ambiguity, role conflict, role unreasonable group and political pressure compared to general nursing staff. Also the mental health inventory total score is negatively correlated with role overload sub-domain of occupational stress index scale. Present study implicates the need of comprehensive psycho-social management plans for the professionals working in psychiatric hospitals.


2021 ◽  
pp. 205015792110011
Author(s):  
Piper Liping Liu ◽  
Tien Ee Dominic Yeo

This study investigates the contextual and relational characteristics that underlie people’s information and communication technology (ICT) use and the implications for their well-being. We contextualize this investigation according to migrants, because they are faced with disruptions to their personal networks in the migration process that may attenuate the availability of social support and negatively affect their mental health. Migrants tend to be proficient in using mobile ICT to connect with different social ties to fulfill their needs, which potentially makes a difference to their psychological well-being. Through a survey of 504 internal migrant workers in China, we examined the social network factors that underlie multiple mobile ICT use and the attendant influences on social support and psychological well-being. Redressing the overemphasis on the importance of strong ties in extant literature, this study highlights the salience of mobile media multiplexity (i.e., the use of multiple mobile communication channels for social interactions) in weak tie communication and the greater contribution of weak ties toward social support and psychological well-being than strong ties. Our findings suggest that mobile-mediated communicative relationships with newer and more distanced social connections outside their immediate circles enhance the well-being of migrants. We contend that media multiplexity vis-à-vis weak ties underscores the reconfiguration of migrants’ communicative relationships following the separation from original ties and facilitates rewarding interactions with new ties.


2021 ◽  
pp. 089011712110244
Author(s):  
Kristi Rahrig Jenkins ◽  
Emily Stiehl ◽  
Bruce W. Sherman ◽  
Susan L. Bales

Purpose: This study examines the association between sources of stress and perceptions of organizational and supervisor support for health and well-being. Design: Retrospective, cross-sectional analysis. Setting: Large university in the mid-western United States. Sample: This study focused on university employees with complete data for all variables (organizational support/N = 19,536; supervisor support/N = 20,287). Measures: 2019 socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, count of chronic conditions, sources of stress and perceptions of organizational and supervisor support. Analysis: For the multivariate analyzes, linear regression models were analyzed separately by wage bands (low ≤$46,100; middle >$46,100-$62,800; high >$62,800). Results: For all employees, workplace stressors, including problematic relationships at work and heavy job responsibilities, were negatively associated with perceptions of supervisor and organizational support. In comparison, the most salient home-based stressors were negatively associated with perceptions of supervisor support for the lowest-wage band (the death of a loved one, b = −0.13) and middle-wage band (personal illness or injury, b = −0.09), while the one for the highest-wage band (illness or injury of a loved one, b = 0.07) was positively associated with perceptions of supervisor support. Conclusion: Stressful job responsibilities and work relationships are associated with lower perceptions of supervisor and organizational support for health and well-being across all wage bands. Favorable perceived support for personal stressors only among high wage earning employees may suggest a need for improved equity of perceived support for these stressors among lower wage workers.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen E. Lee ◽  
Tushara Govind ◽  
Marina Ramsey ◽  
Tsung Chin Wu ◽  
Rebecca Daly ◽  
...  

AbstractThere is growing interest in the role of compassion in promoting health and well-being, with cross-sectional data showing an inverse correlation with loneliness. This is the first longitudinal study examining both compassion toward others (CTO) and compassion toward self (CTS) as predictors of mental and physical health outcomes including loneliness, across adult lifespan. We followed 552 women and 538 men in San Diego County for up to 7.5 (mean 4.8 and SD 2.2) years, using validated rating scales for CTO, CTS, and loneliness. Linear mixed-effects models were employed to examine age- and sex-related trajectories of CTO and CTS over time. Linear regression models were used to evaluate baseline and longitudinal relationships of CTO and CTS with mental well-being, physical well-being, and loneliness. CTS and CTO were weakly intercorrelated. Women had higher baseline CTO than men. While CTO was stable over time and across the lifespan, CTS scores had an inverse U-shaped relationship with age, peaking around age 77. There were significant baseline × slope interactions of both CTO and CTS predicting improvements in physical well-being in adults <60 years old. Increases in CTO and CTS predicted improvements in mental well-being. Higher baseline CTO and CTS as well as increases in CTO and CTS scores predicted lower loneliness scores at follow-up. Thus, CTO and CTS were associated with better mental well-being and loneliness across the adult lifespan, and physical well-being in younger adults, and are promising targets for interventions to improve health outcomes.


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