ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: This study examined the effects of demographic variables on the job stress experience and established the norms of the Korean version of Occupational Stress Inventory. METHODS: The normative group consisted of 805 adult workers who represent seven major job class in Korea. K-OSI were administered to normative group and data were analyzed by subjects' demographic variables. RESULTS: To explore the effects of demographic variables on K-OSI, we considered several factors such as age, sex, duration of employment, job class, job position and so on. The results were as follows: 1) We found significant sex difference in K-OSI. Compared with men, women showed higher scores in Role Insufficiency, Role Ambiguity, Social Support, Vocational Strain Scales and men showed higher scores in Role Overload, Responsibility Scales. 2) Generally, a person who was older, earned higher salary, more duration of employment experienced job stress and had more coping resources. 3) In general, white-collar workers, job classes and job position had little effects on job stress. But other workers such as security guards, military officers were different from general white-collar workers in K-OSI. CONCLUSION: Because men and women showed significant difference in K-OSI, we constructed norms according to sex. K-OSI would be an useful instrument to identify one's job stress experience and to develop intervention plan.
Subject(s)
Adult , Female , Humans , Male , Employment , Korea , Military Personnel , Salaries and Fringe Benefits , Sex Characteristics , Weights and MeasuresABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: The present study explored the reliability and the validity of our newly constructed job stress scale, the Korean version of the Occupational Stress Inventory (K-OSI) METHODS: Through preliminary item-analysis, we constructed 140 items of the Korean version of Occupational Stress Inventory (K-OSI) K-OSI consists of three subscales measuring three sections, 'ORQ'(Occupational Role Questionnaire) 'PSQ'(Personal Strain Questionnaire) and 'PRQ'(Personal Resource Questionnaire) respectively. The normative group consisted of 805 adult workers who represented six major job classes in Korea. RESULTS: The internal consistency coefficients of 'ORQ', 'PSQ', and 'PRQ' ranged from .89 to .92, and of those 14 subscales ranged from .70 to .88. The test-retest reliability coefficients of 8 week duration ranged from .62 to . 79, and bilingual's consistency coefficient ranged from .82 to . 96. The validity of the K-OSI was investigated by factor-analysis, yielding 3 factors of overall job stress and its responses, personal stress coping, psychological, physical, and behavioral responses of job stress. CONCLUSION: The present results indicate that the K-OSI is a reliable and valid measure of job stress.
Subject(s)
Adult , Humans , Korea , Reproducibility of ResultsABSTRACT
The objective of this study is to identify any differences in disease status between foreign patients staying in Korea and Korean patients. The study results are : First, more foreign stayers than Korean in their 20's and 30's seek medical services but those after age of 60 show the opposite pattern. This difference seems to feflect cultural difference in the concept of medical services and health seeking behavior. Second, foreign pateints were much more frequently(almost threee times) diagnosed as having an acute disease, and the fact that the most common diseases were "diseases of the respiratory system" can suggest the seriousness of air pollution problem in Korea. And, the fact that foreign stayers, especially those from developed countries, tend to take more periodic general physical examina-tion indicated that their health maintenance efforts place emphasis on prevention. Foreign patients seek more medical services during the spring and summer time when compared to Korean patients, and Korean patients visited the clinic more frequently during the autum time. Also, the review of the number of outpatients seeking medical services and the average duration of outpatient follow-up mainten-ance after discharge suggest that foreigners suffer less severe diseases than Koreans do. Finally, in contrast to the usual practice of Koreans of coming to the center without prior calling for reservation, most foreign patients tend to make reservations before coming(usually a day before) in general. This is also reflective of cultural difference related to the way of utilizing medical services.