Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The research set out to study occupational stress and its consequences in newly qualified graduate engineers. The project was also concerned with a number of more general issues in the area of stress research. A longitudinal design was employed, with measures taken before subjects entered their first full-time job, then on two more occasions after they had started employment.

Main Topics:

Variables A large proportion of the data were gathered by means of a postal questionnaire, using conventional self-report measures, often in Likert-type format. However, in addition, respondents were asked to provide open-ended descriptions of concrete stressful incidents which were subjected to content analysis. Finally, in an effort to obtain consensual validation of some of the self-report data, information was obtained from colleagues of the respondents who were familiar with their jobs. Measures of stress included role stress, frustration stress (Likert format), job difficulty characteristics (open-ended). Measures of strain included job dissatisfaction, work-relation tension (anxiety tension), latent hostility, anger feelings (all Likert).

A purposive approach was adopted, with the sampling method bearing most similarity to a multi-stage cluster

Face-to-face interview

Postal survey

Psychological measurements