The Association Between Occupational Stress and Occupational Identities: The Analysis Based on a Questionnaire Survey of Nursing Faculty Members

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to obtain an empirical insight on the relationship between occupational stress and occupational identity among those who change jobs. We sent an anonymous, self-administered questionnaire to 1,034 nursing faculty members who had been nurses. Its response rate was 41.3%, among them 89.7% were valid. We then analyzed the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire and a Scale to Measure Professional Identity in the Nursing Profession among 312 full-time nursing faculty members with nonmanagerial position. The respondents' occupational identity consisted of two axes: degree of “satisfaction with nursing faculty members” and “affirmation of oneself as a nurse or a nursing faculty member. The examination of the association between four quadrants classified from them and occupational stress revealed that the stress control was more related to “satisfaction with oneself as a nursing faculty member” than “whether you are more positive about oneself as a nurse or as a nursing faculty member.” This research shows that it is useful to take the degree of satisfaction for the present self into consideration for the control of occupational stress among nursing faculty members.