Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Yu, Chien

Committee Member

Prince, Debra

Committee Member

Huang, Kun

Committee Member

Scott-Bracey, Pamela

Date of Degree

12-14-2018

Original embargo terms

Worldwide

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

Instructional Systems and Workforce Development

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

College

College of Education

Department

Department of Instructional Systems and Workforce Development

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if there were any differences in stress levels for African-Americans working in technical and non-technical based occupations. In order to adequately address the differences in stress levels for African-Americans, this study examined the data from an existing study called the Jackson Heart Study. Based on the weekly stress of individuals when performing their occupations, information and data were collected from 3 questionnaires that were correlated with stress and occupations of African-Americans in Mississippi. These questionnaires were the Household Enumeration Form, Personal Data and Socioeconomic Form, and the Stress Form. The research design for this study was descriptive and correlational. The study was made-up of 4451 participants (3371 females and 1935 males). The average age of the participants was 55 for females and 54 for males. 57% of the participants in this study indicated that their occupation was not stressful. After the data were collected and analyzed, this study found that there was a significant relationship between occupation traits and stress levels for African-Americans working in Mississippi. This study also found that there was a statistical relationship between stress on the job and technical occupations, which suggests higher stress was found in technical based occupations. In addition, this study found that females had a 40% higher odds of stress while working in technical occupations and men. Also, this research study found that older people had lower odds of stress on the job than younger people. Overall, Jackson Heart Study participants who identified as working in technical occupations were more stressed than participants in non-technical occupations. Based on the results of this study, it was recommended for future studies to use a broader national population of Caucasian, Asia Americans, and African-Americans in the North, East, and West that were made up of diverse occupations and backgrounds to examine if there was any difference in stress levels. Also, it was also recommended that future studies use a more in-depth investigation of health issues of employees caused by the job.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/20018

Comments

technical occupation||non-technical occupations||African-Americans

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