Garments Worker’s Job Stress and Mental Health

The present study attempted an empirical investigation to explore the job stress and mental health of garment workers as a function of gender and salary. A total of 120 respondents constituted the sample of the study were selected purposively of Chittagong district Bangladesh. Among them 60 workers were male (20 were salary ranges of 4000-8000├, 20 were salary ranges of 8100-12000├ and 20 were salary ranges of above 12000├) and 60 workers were female (20 were salary ranges of 4000-8000├, 20 were salary ranges of 8100-12000├ and 20 were salary ranges of above 12000├). An adapted Bengali version (Rahman and Sorcar, 1990) of ‘Job Stress’ scale and Bengali version (Sorcar and Rahman, 1989) of “Mental Health” scale were used. Data were analyzed by mean, standard deviation, Pearson Product Moment Correlation and two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The findings of the present study showed that female workers had significantly more job stress (F=72.07, df =1, p<.00) than male workers and lowest salary ranges workers had significantly more job stress (F=20.78, df =2, p<.00) than highest salary ranges workers. No significant interaction effect found between gender and salary according to job stress. On the other hand, gender had no significant effect on mental health and highest salary ranges workers had significantly more mental health (F =5.71, df =2, p<.00) than lowest salary ranges workers. No significant interaction effect found between gender and salary according to mental health. Results also showed that job stress was negatively correlated (r = -.35, p<.01) with mental health.