Psychological well-being of South Korean employees in different occupational classes

Abstract

We compared the mental health of waged Korean workers in different occupational classes. This was a secondary analysis of data from the fifth Korean Working Conditions Survey, conducted in 2017. Men who were “Unskilled manual workers” were more likely to report poor psychological well-being; however, analysis that adjusted for multiple factors (including work stressors and stress relievers) indicated that status as an “Unskilled manual worker” was not associated with poor psychological well-being. Male and female “Service and Sales workers” were less likely to report poor psychological well-being (aOR = 0.794 and 0.797, respectively). In addition, poor psychological well-being increased as the number of work stressors increased and decreased as the number of stress relievers increased. Work stressors and stress relievers are more deterministic than occupational categories on psychological well-being.

Keywords:

• Job
• occupational class
• stressor
• well-being
• workers

Acknowledgments

This work was carried out at Ulsan University Hospital, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Ulsan, South Korea. All participants provided written informed consent.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Authors’ contributions

Jungsun Park and Yangho Kim carried out design and concept of the study. The acquisition and analysis of data for the work was performed by Yeon Suh Oh. Jungsun Park drafted the manuscript of the study. Yangho Kim revised the manuscript critically. Final approval of the version to be published was done by Jungsun Park and Yangho Kim. Accountability for the accuracy and integrity of any part of this paper was done by Yangho Kim.