A qualitative study of stress in individuals self-employed in solo businesses.

Details

• Personal Author:
  Mazzola JJ ; Schonfeld IS
• Description:
  This qualitative study involved 54 individuals who were self-employed in a variety of solo businesses. All participants were administered a semistructured interview that inquired into various aspects of their work experience with the data subject to reliability and validity checks. The study identified stressful incidents, coping strategies, and emotional strains arising from those stressful incidents. Uncertainty about income was a common background stressor. Recent specific stressors included dramatic slowdowns in business, reputational threat, betrayal, unreasonable customers, and medical problems. Commonly occurring strains included apprehension/anxiety, frustration, anger, and sadness/depression. The self-employed used problem-focused coping much more often than emotion-focused coping. We also identified a third kind of coping that we labeled humanitarian coping. A number of questions/hypotheses for future research emerged, including identifying (a) a tipping point bearing on when the psychological benefits of self-employment (e.g., autonomy) are overtaken by business losses outside the individual's control and (b) the coping strategies that are most useful in managing work-related stressors. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Men Mental Health Occupational Health Safety Stress, Psychological Women Workplace
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Coping; Job Insecurity; Occupational Stress; Qualitative Research; Self-employment Humans; Men; Women; Job Stress; Job Design; Workers; Work Environment; Work Experience; Stress; Coping Behavior; Emotional Stress; Mental Stress; Psychological Stress;
• ISSN:
  1076-8998
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Florida ; Illinois ; New York ; OSHA Region 2 ; OSHA Region 4 ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  20
• Issue:
  4
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20065219
• Citation:
  J Occup Health Psychol 2015 Oct; 20(4):501-513
• Contact Point Address:
  Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Department of Psychology, The City College of the City University of New York, 160 Convent Avenue, NAC 7/201, New York, NY 10031
• Email:
  ischonfeld@ccny.cuny.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2016
• Performing Organization:
  Sunshine Education and Research Center, University of South Florida
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Occupational Health Psychology
• End Date:
  20290630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:8637895533eaadb4c3b93c38fa99430fe70a9768dd7e12d2ba1cf8b06f77605397e6cb6689ac0ff01957df470aac0e804f9210ad9fd2db5a81b53c90e44aa8ae
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/248592/cdc_248592_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 155.54 KB ]