Psychosocial Factors at Work and Occupational Stress in Gas Station Attendants in Ecuador

Abstract

The aim was to determine the association between the psychosocial factors at work and occupational stress in gas station attendants in Ecuador. A transversal study was conducted, including 146 dispatchers of petroleum-derived products. The participants answer a sociodemographic data, the Instrumento de Factores Psicosociales en el Trabajo (Survey of Psychosocial Factors at Work) and the Cuestionario de Evaluación del Estrés (Stress Evaluation Survey). The mean age was of 30.05 years (SD = 8.31), being 67.7% males. The results indicated that the participants perceived a high exposition to the psychosocial factors at work Social interaction (61%), and Organizational aspects and Performance remuneration (47.3%). About the occupational stress, we observed high levels of psychoemotional symptoms (88.4%), followed by those regarding social behavior (74%). When analyzing for the associations between psychosocial factors at occupational stress, we observed several significant correlations, finding that the factors Content and characteristics of the task ( p < 0 .005) and Job role and carrier development ( p < 0.005) presented the higher number of associations with the presence of occupational stress symptoms. We conclude that, the gas station attendants perceive a high exposition to different psychosocial factors at work, which are associated with the presence of high levels of occupational stress, being important to develop further research and interventions that promote the health and wellbeing of this group.