An Evaluation of Seven Job Stressors for Persons with Serious Mental Illness

Abstract

Employment training is one of the successful areas of psychiatric rehabilitation. However, many individuals who could potentially work remain unemployed. An important variable that may contribute to the high level of unemployment is job stress. The more that is understood about specific job stressors and how they affect persons with serious mental illness, the better we will be able to develop effective rehabilitation and skill training programs to overcome problem areas. Employed persons with mental illness were evaluated on seven different types of job stress. These individuals clearly indicated that there were different levels of strain associated with the different kinds of stress. The highest levels of strain were associated with two stressors: relationship with supervisors and receipt of job information when it was no longer useful. One stressor–role conflict and ambiguity–was associated with significantly less strain compared to other stressors. The remaining four variables were rated as moderately stressful and were not significantly different from each other. The skill training implications of these findings were discussed.