Browsing by Subject "ponnistelujen ja palkkioiden välinen epäsuhta"

Objectives. The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between the character traits of Cloninger's psychobiological model of personality and effort-reward imbalance and its components among primary school teachers. Occupational stress is a common fenomenom in worklife, and it is also very costly for organisations and for the society. Long-term occupational stress is associated with increased risk of adverse health effects. Previous studies have noted that teaching is a high strain profession. In previous research personality has been associated with occupational stress. There is little research done on the associations of personality and occupational stress among teachers. The aim of this study was to examine the association of character traits and occupational stress among primary school teachers. Methods. The data used in this pilot study was collected by random sample from primary school class teachers in Helsinki metropolitan area during the spring 2013. There were 55 participants out of which 49 (89%) were women and 6 (11%) were men. The average age of participants was 44 years. Occupational stress was measured using Siegrist's effort-reward –imbalance (ERI) model. Character traits were measured with Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory. Three separate linear regression models were done to measure the association between the character traits and effort-reward imbalance. The first model measured the direct effect of a character trait, in the second model age and number of years of education were controlled and in the third model also the other character traits were controlled. Results and conclusions. Character traits seem to be related to the occupational stress among primary school teachers. Responsibility and purposefulness, two subscales of self-directedness were associated with effort-reward imbalance at work. Higher responsibility and purposefulness predicted lower effort-reward imbalance at work. High purposefulness was associated with lower efforts. Two subscales of cooperativeness, empathy and pure-hearted conscience, were associated with higher rewards. Self-trancendence was not associated with effort-reward imbalance nor its components. These results add further evidence to the idea that certain personality traits may predispose to and protect from the occupational stress among teachers. This knowledge could be used for developing teachers' stress management skills and occupational well-being.