A Comparative Study on Mental Health, Work-related Stress and Work-life Balance in Public Universities in Brazil and Canada | Chapter 08 | Perspectives of Arts and Social Studies Vol. 2
Aims:
This paper aims reporting the perception Brazilian and Canadian public
universities professors have of the level of stress they experience at work and
the perception of their work–life balance, taking into account their workload
and the number of hours they usually work per week. Another objective is to
test the relations work-related stress and work-life balance might have with
the professors’ mental health. The final objective is to compare the
perceptions of Brazilian professors with those of Canadian professors, to look
for differences.
Study
Design: To achieve these objectives, this
paper assesses Mental Health, Work-related Stress and Work-Life Balance for
professors working in these two countries and test for their differences. The
sample consists of 274 Brazilian professors and 252 Canadian professors. Data
were collected through an online questionnaire using Survey Monkey Platform.
The questionnaire was designed for assessing the following indicators:
Psychological Distress, Psychological Well-Being, Workload (physical load,
mental load and emotional load), Number of Working Hours per Week, Work-related
Stress and Work-Life Balance.
Methodology:
Reliability analyses demonstrated that all tested components are consistent to
evaluate Mental Health, Work-related Stress, Workload and Work-Life Balance.
Pearson correlation analyses was performed among the studied variables or
components. Test t was applied to identify significant mean differences between
the two samples. Finally, linear regression, step by step, was performed to
predict the relationship among the variables.
Results:
Correlation analyses showed that Psychological Distress is negatively related
to Work-Life Balance. Correlation analyses showed also that Psychological
Well-Being is negatively related to Work-related Stress and positively related
to Work-Life Balance. There are significant mean differences between Brazilian
and Canadian professors in Physical Load, Mental Load, Work-related Stress and
Work-Life Balance. However, mean differences for Psychological Distress,
Psychological Well-Being, Emotional Load and Number of Working Hours per Week
are not statistically different. Linear regression analysis, step by step,
controlled for Life Events, showed that Work-related Stress predict 46,2% of
the scores of Psychological Distress. Another linear regression also showed
that Work-related Stress and Work-Life Balance predict 41% of the scores of
Psychological Well-Being.
Conclusion:
In summary, we may say that Brazilian professors perceive more work-life
balance, but they face more Mental Load to perform their work. Nonetheless,
Canadian professors find more Physical Load on their work than Brazilian
professors.
Author(s) Details
Ana Alice Vilas Boas
Departamento de
Administração e Economia, Universidade Federal de Lavras – UFLA, Caixa Postal
3037 - Campus Universitário, Lavras, MG, CEP 37200-000, Brasil.
Estelle Morin
HEC Montréal, Service de
l’Enseignement du Management, 3000, Ch. Côte Ste-Catherine Montréal, QC, H3T
2A7, Canada.
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