Premium
A test of stress theory: relief workers in refugee camps
Author(s) -
Soliman Hussein H.,
Gillespie David F.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
disasters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.744
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1467-7717
pISSN - 0361-3666
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-7717.2011.01241.x
Subject(s) - refugee , gaza strip , test (biology) , work (physics) , stress (linguistics) , social work , occupational safety and health , west bank , emergency management , human factors and ergonomics , poison control , psychology , engineering , demographic economics , environmental health , geography , political science , medicine , history , palestine , archaeology , economics , law , ancient history , mechanical engineering , paleontology , linguistics , philosophy , biology
The purpose of this paper is to apply a stress model drawn from the literature to the relief and social service workers who have been active in refugee camps for a prolonged period of time. Working in difficult environments, social service workers deliver essential services to refugee populations around the world. A model of four work‐stress determinants—tasks, management, appreciation and collaboration—was tested on 274 social workers in five regions of the Middle East (Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, as well as the occupied Palestinian territories of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank). Statistical fit indices were adequate but two relationships were statistically insignificant. The collaboration variable was dropped to create a modified model with tasks indirectly and management and appreciation directly affecting work‐related stress. The five direct relationships and two indirect relationships of this modified model are consistent with stress theory, and all relationships—direct and indirect—are statistically significant.