What are the various causes of stress in today's urban society

Most of us probably have experienced being in stress, from the simplest of things like having to speak in front of the class or rushing to finish your assignment in time. In fact 75% of the general population experiences at least “some stress” every two weeks. Furthermore up to 5 million people in the UK are ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ stressed through work, and can u believe that in Asia Singapore ranks 4^th in stress levels? Just what is causing all this stress in today’s society? Well there are various reasons be it work related, financial problems or even school related.

            First of all how do we define work-related stress? Work-related stress can be defined as an individual’s emotional and physical response to the demands of a job that is incongruent with his or her abilities, resources, or needs (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, No. 99–101). Basically Social work professionals often face challenges or obstacles that may cause them to feel overwhelmed and stressed. (Coyle,Edwards, Hannigan, Fothergill & Burnard, 2005; Fahy, 2007). According to the NASW Membership Workforce Survey about 31% of the participants indicated that the lack of time to do their job is a major issue, about 25% says they are stressed because of the heavy workload they are required to do, around 19% is saying that their salaries are not comparable to colleagues in similar jobs and about 16% says there are overall inadequate compensation plus the issue with dealing with difficult/challenging clients. There are also additional factors such as being expected to work in long hours and having few opportunities for advancement/promotion. Another concern is that according to the Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR) which covers the opinions of 7,200 privately owned businesses in 32 countries found that 56% of business leaders worldwide feel their stress levels have increased in the last year. This is bad for the society considering it is now proven that being in a stressful working environment, whether caused by individual or situational factors, can lead to health problems and risk of injury. Stress at work not only affects the individual but has also been estimated to cost the American industry more than 100 billion dollars annually in absenteeism, productivity loss and health related expenses (Jacobson, Aldana, Goetzel, Vardell,

Adams & Pietras, 1996; Rosch, 1984).

            Financial stress is another important source of distress in people’s lives because many fundamental activities of daily living and opportunities for success are closely related to current levels of personal financial resources (Peirce, Frone, Russell  & Cooper,  1996).  Financial stress has been referred to by researchers as economic stress, economic hardship, economic strain, and economic pressure.  Economic strain is an evaluation of current financial status such as perceived financial adequacy, financial concerns and worries, adjustments to changes in one’s financial situation, and one’s projected financial situation (Voydanoff, 1984). A question was raised, are financially troubled employees as productive as others? Twenty-seven percent of those responding to a recent survey conducted by the Los Angeles Times characterized their personal finances as shaky. Forty percent reported difficulty paying installment loans, car payments or insurance premiums (Atkinson, 2001). Brown (1993, 1999) reported that at least 10% of employees experience financial problems and bring those issues to work where it affects their productivity. In a study of both civilian and military research, Garman, Leech, and Grable (1996) calculated that 15% of employees in the United States are experiencing personal financial stress to the point that it negatively impacts their job productivity. These statistics proves the statement in which it is widely believed that many personal life stresses,  such as marital, family, illness, and financial, influence an individual’s psychological state and behavior at work (Families and Work Institute, 1997).

            While most of us have experienced being in school, in reality school is the first place in which you would experience stress. From the start during ages 5 to 7 the feeling of being away from home and the fear of wetting themselves can be a factor leading to stress. When you get to primary school there’s the fear of bullies and mixing in with the crowd, from then on there’s the worrying of unfinished assignments which would lead to punishments from teachers and parents. (Youngs, Bettie. B.1995). As they enter colleges and universities there would be even more greater sources of stress such as public examinations, financial responsibilities, making your own decisions and exposure to new people, ideas and temptations. In 2005, the National College Health Assessment (NCHA) surveyed 17,000 college students. Twenty-five percent of the students reported they have "felt so depressed it was difficult to function" three to eight times in the past 12 months. Twenty one percent of the students reported that they "seriously considered suicide." According to the 2005 National Survey of Counseling Center Directors, 154 students committed suicide. It is depressing to think that the second leading cause of death among college students is suicide. (Hardy, 2005).

            From all this stress can be considered a big concern for all of us, however this doesn’t mean that stress is bad for the society. There are stressors which would benefit the person such as stresses caused by rivals or competitors which would make the people contesting thrive even better. This said there is one thing which all of us unconsciously know, stress would never disappear from our lives. (1079 words)

           

References:

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4) Coyle, D., Edwards, D., Hannigan, B., Fothergill, A., & Burnard, P. (2005). A systematic review of stress among mental health social workers. International Social Work, 48(2), 2001-211.

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