Psychological distress and associated factors among Japanese nursery school and kindergarten teachers: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

The understaffing of nursery schools and kindergartens and the increasing workload of childcare workers are becoming significant issues in Japan. In this study, a cross-sectional survey was conducted to investigate the stress experienced by childcare workers and its antecedents. We distributed 2,640 questionnaires to childcare workers in Miyagi prefecture, obtaining a response rate of 51.9% (n = 1,370). Finally, 1,210 valid questionnaires were used in the analysis. As a stress indicator, psychological distress was measured with the Kessler Screening Scale for Psychological Distress (K6). The mean K6 score was 7.0 (SD = 5.4), and the prevalence of psychological distress (K6 score ≥5) was 60.0%. Considering work-related factors, the mean scores were as follows: supervisor support 11.8 (2.6), coworker support 12.1 (2.0), work engagement 3.2 (1.2), and effort-reward ratio 0.93 (0.53). A multivariate logistic regression analysis with adjustment for possible confounders revealed that increased psychological distress was associated with higher effort-reward ratio, lower support from supervisors and coworkers, lower work engagement, and insufficient sleep. These results suggest that elevated psychological distress is strongly associated with effort-reward imbalance, while high work engagement in childcare workers helped to reduce their distress.

A cross-sectional study of the association between effort-reward imbalance and psychologic distress among Japanese dietitians

“…We also surveyed work-related social support as a covariate of psychologic distress and found that supervisor support was 11.8 and coworker support was 11.9. These values are comparable with those reported for childcare workers (supervisor support: 11.8; coworker support: 12.1) 4 and slightly higher than female government workers (supervisor support: 10.5; coworker support: 11.0) 12 in previous studies. Additionally, in many cases, there is only one dietitian assigned to a workplace or the dietitians' supervisors are from a different profession.…”

“…In previous surveys, the mean ER ratios for other occupations were reported to be 0.5 for 1000 female office employees, 29 0.7 for 2208 female specialists, 29 0.8 for 348 nurses, 7 0.93 for 1210 childcare workers, 4 and 1.38 for 342 eldercare workers 8 in Japan. Compared with other occupations, we found the mean ER ratio of dietitians to be higher than that of female office employees and specialists, 29 lower than that of childcare 4 and eldercare workers, 8 and comparable to nurses. 7 However, this comparison was not adjusted for gender, age, and other covariates.…”

“…The details have been described elsewhere. 4 In short, the ERI was measured using a subscale of the ERI Questionnaire, 20,24 psychologic distress using the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6), [25][26][27] and worksite social support from supervisors and coworkers using a subscale of the Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ). 18,28 In the current study, the internal reliability of these scales was high, with Cronbach's α of .905 (effort of ERI), .897 (reward of ERI), .895 (psychologic distress of K6), .909 (supervisor support of JCQ), and .845 (coworker support of JCQ).…”

“…Various surveys have been conducted for occupational stress. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] However, only a few studies have explored this for dietitians. [13][14][15][16] Most of these surveys have been conducted with dietitians working in hospitals or social welfare facilities.…”

Job Demands and Resources, Burnout, and Psychological Distress of Employees in the Chinese Non-profit Sector

“…While psychological distress has been studied among samples in various occupations ( 39 – 42 ), to the authors' knowledge, no studies have investigated psychological distress among non-profit employees specifically, despite the growth of non-profit sectors around the globe [e.g., ( 43 , 44 )] and especially in China ( 17 , 18 ). Thus, we seek to fill this gap in the literature by examining psychological distress among Chinese non-profit employees, including its relations with JD-R and their underlying mechanism.…”