Browsing by Subject "stress"

I dagens samhälle finns det mycket diskussion angående de faktorer som bidrar till att orka arbeta och arbetshälsa. I denna avhandling presenteras några av dessa faktorer. I denna kvantitativa pro gradu-avhandling lades tyngdpunkten välmående på arbetsplatsen utgående från arbetsutmattning och arbetsrelaterad stress. Undersökningen ämnade belysa försäljarnas och butikschefernas arbetsutmattning inom en organisation i Helsingforsregionen och Nyland och hur olika stressfaktorer påverkar denna utmattning. Utgående från tvärsnitsundersökningen, som utfördes med en elektronisk enkät, som bestod av mätarna Bergen Burnout Indicator – 15 och Työstressikysely, framgick det att omkring hälften av arbetstagarna kände sig utmattade. Det framgick även att den mest framstående formen av arbetsutmattning bland dessa arbetstagare var en cynisk inställning till arbetet. Undersökningen påvisade även att det finns ett samband mellan arbetstagarnas arbetsutmattning och upplevelserna av stress. Detta samband ökade då andra stressfaktorer, som till exempel möjlighet att påverka arbetet och belåtenhet, inkluderades.

The purpose of this thesis is to provide an introduction to the subject of children’s stress in child care settings. The paper discusses the neuropsychological foundation to stress, as well as what this implicates for the educator’s work on reducing stress in child care settings. The research questions were as following. 1. How does the stress system work in a child? 2. How can the educator use current research on stress to help children improve their stress management skills and reduce stress in child care settings? The method that has been used in this thesis is a narrative literature review. The thesis arrives at the conclusion that educators need to broaden their knowledge on how the stress system works in a child. The thesis also identifies which aspects of the child care setting and the educator’s working method that are importiant in reducing children’s stress. The thesis argues that there is need for a working method that is more conciously focused on reucing stress.

Syftet med denna pro gradu är att undersöka finländska unga vuxnas upplevelser av sin medieanvändning i relation till välmående och stress. Även medieanvändning i relation till återhämtning är väsentligt i avhandlingen. Forskningen baserar sig på fem intervjuer. De intervjuade är fyra kvinnor och en man, i åldern 25 till 32 år. Genom att intervjua fem personer om hur de upplevt stress och återhämtning i förhållande till sin medieanvändning och relatera forskningsmaterialet till tidigare forskning om ungdomar, medieanvändning, stress och välmående i dagens samhälle, är syftet att om möjligt komma fram till nya insikter om hur dagens ungdomars välmående påverkas av deras medieanvändning. Forskningen sätter i synnerhet tyngdpunkt på den roll som användningen av digitala och sociala medier spelar för unga människors välmående i dagens Finland. Forskningens resultat visar att det främst är sociala medier, digitala medier och den ökade användningen av smarttelefon som orsakar mest stress och minskar välmående hos unga vuxna.

At the time of conducting this study, the Finnish upper secondary schools were facing a major change in the school system. Universities were changing their admission system, and a reform in upper secondary education resulted in a new curriculum for the school year 2021, five years after the current curriculum was put into use in 2016. Guidance counseling has gained a more prominent role in the curriculum and individual counseling and development has become increasingly emphasized. The proportion of upper secondary school teachers who often experience stress has risen from 14% to 17% between 2017 and 2019, and previous research indicates that guidance counselors are at risk of burnout. Stressors have been discovered to be lack of timely resources, lack of role clarity and a large workload. The purpose of this study is to investigate the Finnish guidance counselors’ well-being at work, and how they experience their workload. This is explored on the basis of the variables job satisfaction, satisfaction regarding job duties, social support, time resources, access to further training, experienced challenge and experienced stress. The data was collected with an electronic questionnaire sent out to the guidance counselors in Swedish speaking upper secondary schools in Finland, a total of N = 42. The questionnaire was answered by a total of N = 22, all of which were analyzed in the study. The program IBM SPSS 25 was used in the processing and analysis of the data. All group comparisons are performed with nonparametric tests: Mann-Whitney U-test, Kruskal-Wallis test by ranks and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. The results showed that the guidance counsellors generally experienced a high level of job satisfaction. Symptoms of stress or perceived burnout had a negative correlation with several factors: job satisfaction, perceived social support, timely resources at hand, and a higher experience of stress and challenge. Work experience was also significant for job satisfaction. Despite this, the guidance counselors with experiences of stress or burnout reported a high job satisfaction.

The objective of this study was to develop functional method for producing doupled-haploid plants for faba bean. Microspore culture is an advanced method to produce doubled-haploids and it is based on the totipotent nature of plant cells, since even a microspore, which is an immature pollen cell with haploid genome, can develop into a plant. This plant is either haploid or doupled haploid depending on whether there has been chromosome doubling or not and because the chromosomes either do not have pairs or the pairs are pure copies of each other, the plant is completely homozygous. Doubled haploids are already used in breeding programs with several crops such as wheat, barley and oilseed rape. Faba bean is an important legume for food, feed and crop rotation. Together with other legumes it has the potential to replace soybean imports entirely in Finland. Faba bean yield stability and anti-nutritional factors restrain its use and active breeding is required to improve the crop. In Finland, where pea and faba bean are the only grain legumes actively cultivated, the breeding of faba bean has been recently reactivated and its objectives are earliness, higher yield, protein content and improved quality factors. Big bottle neck in faba bean breeding is the creation of pure homozygote lines because the partial cross-breeding in the species sets restrains for the procedure. In this study promising pea and chick pea protocols that were developed in 2009 and an efficient rapeseed protocol were applied with faba bean. The interaction of various stress treatments and two different induction media with five genotypes of faba bean on microspore culture were analysed. Pro-embryos and cell divisions were observed from the cultures. Heat shock was the most effective stress treatment. Effects of density and induction medium were high and cultivar’s low tannin content seemed to impact positively to induction efficiency. These results suggest that for faba bean microspore culture is as suitable method as anther culture is and that there is hope to produce doubled-haploid faba beans in the future.

Målet med denna licentiatavhandling var att utveckla metoder med vilka man kan mäta stressnivån hos suggor med hjälp av kortisolhalten och hjärtfrekvensen. Suggor utsätts för olika typer av stress och stressen är en naturlig förutsättning för inlärning samt utveckling. Stressen ger sig uttryck i olika fysiologiska förändringar, bland annat en förändring i kortisolhalten och hjärtfrekvensen. Det har konstaterats suggor som hålls fixerade i bur ofta lider mer av fysiologisk stress än suggor som hålls i box. Försöket utfördes i Foulum Research Center i Foulum, Danmark under sommaren 2015. I den här undersökningen tog vi reda på hur 14 dräktiga suggor reagerade på olika stressmoment. Suggorna förflyttades från boxar till grisningsburar respektive nya grisningsboxar, och kortisolhalten och hjärtfrekvensen mättes före, under och efter flytten. Dessutom utfördes ett grisskriktest 2–4 dagar efter grisningen där suggans hjärtfrekvens mättes i samband med den egna griskultingens skri. Kortisolhalten mättes med salivprov medan hjärtfrekvensen mättes med ett pulsbälte. Resultaten visar att till skillnad från tidigare försök sjönk kortisolhalten akut vid förflyttningen av suggorna till en ny miljö. Dock steg hjärtpulsen som väntat och skiljde sig signifikant från vilopulsen upp till 30 minuter efter flytten, men det fanns ingen tydlig korrelation mellan medelpuls och kortisol. Vid jämförelser av den långsiktiga kortisolhalten konstaterades suggornas kortisol ha en dygnsrytm, där koncentrationen var högre på morgonen än på kvällen. Vid ungefär hälften av mätningstillfällena visade sig kortisolhalten vara lägre hos suggor i burar, vilket kan tyda på kronisk stress, och man kan därmed påstå att omgivningen påverkar kortisolkoncentrationen. I grisskriktestet visade sig omgivningen tendera att ha en inverkan på suggans reaktion i samband med tre av fem skrik, eftersom pulsen var högre hos suggor i box. Beaktade man suggans reaktion under grisskriktestet konstaterades det att under två skrik av fem hade beteendet ett samband med hjärtfrekvensen. Kortisol och hjärtfrekvensen konstaterades variera under olika stressmoment suggorna utsattes för, såsom miljöombyte och en griskultings skri. Det finns möjligheter att vidareutveckla dessa metoder för att mäta stressnivån och välmående hos suggor, men det finns många variabler man bör beakta, exempelvis ålder, antal grisningar och individuella skillnader.

The aim of this study was to describe difficulties in kids self-regulation and define multiple things that cause it in day care interaction situations. The research questions are 1. How difficulties in self-regulation appear in interaction, 2. What are the causes that effect to self-regulation, and 3. What pedagogical methods are applied concerning self-regulation in day care groups in this research. Stress is closely related with self-regulation. When faced with a stimulus, people become alerted. That elevates stress level and calls for self regulation. Self-regulation is considered as dependent on circumstances and interaction. Difficulties in self-regulation often coexist with difficulties in peer relations. People have inborn abilities to regulate emotions and behavior, but self-regulation skills are also learned in interaction with others. Human is considered to be pro-social by birth, and to be favoring helping others. Interventions concerning self-regulation has been developed, to enhance pedagogical sensitivity among day care teachers. Pedagogical sensitivity reduces stress and helps children to self-regulate. Two day care groups from Helsinki participated in this research. Research groups had children with special needs integrated. The data was collected by videotaping and observing the interaction in normal daily activities in spring 2015, two days in a row. Interesting clips were chosen from the videotapes to be shown to day care teachers together with the interviews. In interviews, the teachers commented about the situations from the videoclips and answered open questions about self-regulation. Observations from the videotapes and transcribed interviews were analyzed according to methods of qualitative content analysis. According to research findings, difficulties in self-regulation appear in interaction with unique ways. Children seem to have their own individual ways to react in face of a stress and in need of self-regulation. Difficulties in self-regulation appeared in behavior merely described with three concepts: ”fight, flee or freeze”. Difficulties were either active and extraverted, or passive and introverted. The causes that effect self-regulation in this research were distinctive and dependent on the situation. Children had very different abilities to face day care interaction situations. Self-regulation was effected with multiple, also random causes, and because of that self-regulation cannot be seen linear from its causes and effects. Causes were classified as 1. abilities to regulate, 2. causes that strain and challenging interaction situations. These three causes can be found in all research situations that had self-regulation difficulties. Adult support, well-planned, structured day care environment and customs, that have been formed together, were the main causes that supported self-regulation in this research. In research day care groups self-regulation difficulties were prevented in many ways. Teachers had good knowledge and know-how about self-regulation. To support development of self-regulation in wider perspective knowledge should be increased. Children should have opportunities to train their self-regulation skills in their natural interaction situations, for example, with adult supported play, and interventions that enhance emotion-regulation and interaction skills.

The aim of this study is to investigate the stress levels of children who attend day care by examining the relations between the quality of the day care centre, child's individual characteristics and stress. This study is a part of a broader study concerning children's stress regulation and learning at the Department of Teacher Education in the University of Helsinki. The participants of the study were 33 day care centres in 5 towns in Southern Finland. The 340 children examined in the study were between the ages 3 and 7. The evaluation of stress levels was completed by stress hormone measurements. These measurements were obtained by saliva samples which were taken from the children (N=340) a total of five (N=5) times during a day. The measuring process was carried out both at home and at the day care centre. The samples were then frozen and analysed at the National Institute for Health and Welfare. The quality of the day care centres was explored from several aspects. However, the examination stayed on the micro level – i.e. the quality factors were evaluated empirically. In this process, the structural and process related quality factors in the day care group's learning environment were assessed. To do this, The Learning Environment Assessment Scale (Strain & Joseph 2004) was used as a medium of assessment. In this scale, the observed subjects are multifaceted. They include classroom arrangement, assessment of activity and transition situations, and the working methods of the pedagogues. A child's individual characteristics were assessed by exploring the child's temperament. The parents evaluated their child's temperament with the Children's Behaviour Questionnaire which has been created by Rothbart (2001). The results indicate that the children's stress hormone levels during the day followed the normal everyday cortisol cycle. On average, however, girls were more stressed than boys. High quality evaluations of the pedagogue team's functionality as well as consistency and clarity in the activity and transition situations reduced the children's stress levels. Children who had a tendency to react to the smallest of stimuli were most likely to have higher stress levels. Girls, whose temperament had been evaluated to not show anger and frustration, were more stressed on average. Also, boys whose activity level was evaluated to be high had stress levels above average.

Due to advanced technology and globalization people have greater physical flexibility which also applies to workplaces. Employees in offices can work in more flexible ways which makes distance work even more common. The traditional office environments that we have been using for a long time are making way for more flexible offices, the most flexible of them is called agile workplace. Everyone is located in the same space, both leaders and workers, in the agile workplace office. Distance work is more common and the hierarchy be-tween the leader and the workers is smaller. The aim for this study is therefore to take a closer look at what challenges and possibilities the leaders experience in the agile workplac-es as well as how leaders experience stress and well-being in these offices. The purpose is also to study how the situation with the virus covid-19 year 2020 affected the leaders and their experience of stress and well-being during this time. Nine (9) interviewees participated in the study. The informants were leaders in agile work-places. The study used a qualitative research method with phenomenological semistructured interviews. The interviews were then analysed by a thematic analyse method with an induc-tive approach. Results indicate that challenges occur regarding the noises and disturbances in the offices. There also occur challenges regarding tasks that demand concentration and when dealing with confidential material. Possibilities was found in the environment itself as well as the freedom and flexibility in the office environment. The agile workplace created possibilities regarding quick and effective communication, great social interaction and the office contrib-uted with great ergonomics. The interviewees had good well-being and did not experience stress due to the office environment. Covid-19 had not affected the informants significantly. Some experienced occasional stress due to the virus. They had more leisure time which af-fected their well-being positively while the social contacts had been erased which had a neg-ative effect on their well-being.

Objectives. Research revealed that the Covid-19 pandemic caused stress (Cooke et al. 2020). Whether or not this also applied to principals in Finland will be tested in this study. This study discovers in what way there is a difference in the self-reported as well as the physiological stress of Finnish principals between 2019 and 2020. Researchers have found a connection between stress and social support among principals (Beausaert et al., 2016; Upadyaya et al., 2021). This thesis investigates in what way there is a connection between self-reported and physiological stress of 2020 and the experienced help and support for the Covid-19 procedures. Based on previous studies by Upadyaya et al. (2021) and a someway similar investigation by Beausaert et al. (2016), the hypothesis was that the dataset will reveal a connection between stress and social support. The research questions of this study are: 1. In what way do the principals’ physiological and self-reported stress levels for 2020 differ from 2019? 2. In what way is there a connection between principals’ self-reported as well as physiological stress and the experienced help and support for the Covid-19 procedures? Methods. All the physiological, as well as questionnaire data that are used in this study were collected in 2019 and 2020 by Katariina Salmela-Aro’s research group at the University of Helsinki. The physiological data was retrieved with Firstbeat’s device: Bodyguard 2. In this study, a selection of questionnaire data, and SDNN values that were retrieved during working time (8 a.m. till 5 p.m.) and sleeping time (midnight till 6 a.m.) have been used. Results and conclusions. The self-reported scales of “Cognitive Stress Symptoms”, “Stress” and “Somatic Stress Symptoms” between 2019 and 2020 were analysed as well as the physiological data. A significant result has been found only in the cognitive stress symptoms. Surprisingly, cognitive stress symptoms decreased in 2020, compared to 2019. A significant connection between the self-reported stress of “Cognitive Stress Symptoms”, “Stress” and “Somatic Stress Symptoms” with the experienced help and support of the Covid-19 procedures from Guardians of pupils/students have been found. As well as a significant connection between self-reported “Stress” with the experienced help and support of the Covid-19 procedures from the State level. The physiological data recorded during the night correlated significantly with ‘’Guardians of pupils/students’’, ‘’Municipal education board’’ and the ‘’State level’.