The relationship between job event stressors and psychological stress reaction in different groups

The purpose of this study was to examine the relation of age groups and gender to job events and psychological stress reactions. The subjects were 3020 employees (2468 0f an industrial research institute and 552 0f a construction company). A checklist questionnaire consisting of 40 job events and the Job Stress Scale (JSS) were administered to measure job event stressors and total score of psychological stress reactions (such as anger, cardiovascular symptoms, social anxiety, fatigue, irritability, and mild depressive state), respectively. As a result, demographic differences in the relationship between job event stressors and psychological stress reactions were revealed. For example, only thirty employees had a high psychological stress reaction score when they experienced some trouble with their people, whereas all employees had a high psychological stress reaction score when they experienced an event such as "trouble with one's colleagues". These findings suggest that we should consider two types of job events, especially, interpersonal ones, when evaluating the degree of mental health of employees.