An investigation of primary stress sources among human service workers

The purpose of this study was to examine the causes of stress among direct-care workers in community residential facilities for mentally retarded adults and children. Direct-care workers from two group homes for adults and one group home for children were chosen from Nashville, Tennessee, for the study. All employees who were designated as primary care-takers were solicited for this study. The sample included 40 workers with adults and 21 workers with children. There was a 68% rate of return from among the workers contacted.

The Work Stress Scale was developed by the investigator for use in this study. It was comprised of 28 stressful situations divided equally into the four categories of client, coworkers, supervisor, and agency. The test items were derived from a review of the literature on stress in human service agencies and the investigator's experience in the field. Subjects responded to each item according to the amount of stress they perceived to be associated with the item (on a scale from one to four). Demographic information including age, sex, job status, time in human service field, time in current position, and education level was also collected and used in the final analyses.

The major findings of the study indicated that the Work Stress Scale was a reliable instrument for measuring stress levels associated with the four categories. The client was found to be the primary stress source. There was a significant correlation between the agency and supervisor subscales indicating that the sample did not differentiate between the two as stress sources. The coworker subscale had very low stress scores.

Although the Work Stress Scale proved to have value with this sample, it should be tested with other human service populations before these results can be generalized to the entire field. The sample proved to have some peculiarities that distinguished it from the general human service population, i.e., minimal contact with coworkers and supervisors.

Stress is a significant factor in human service agencies that affect the delivery of services to clients. Identifying stress sources is a first step towards correcting problems associated with stress and improving agency performance.