TTLV: Occupational stress for reporters

INFORMATION ABOUT THE MASTER'S THESIS

1. Student's full name: Hoang Phuoc Hanh 2. Gender: Female

3. Date of birth: March 7, 1988

4. Place of birth: Hanoi

5. Decision No. 5626/QD-XHNV dated December 29, 2023, of the Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.

6. Changes in the training process: None

7. Thesis title: Occupational stress for journalists

8. Major: Psychology (Research-oriented); Code: 8310401

9. Scientific supervisor: Dr. Tran Ha Thu; Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.

10. Summary of the thesis results:

- In theory: Occupational stress in journalists is the result of psychological discomfort stemming from the journalist's self-assessment that the demands of the journalistic environment exceed their ability to successfully meet them.

Occupational stressors for journalists include the psychological demands of the specific job environment in journalism, which can exceed available resources, coupled with a lack of autonomy and social support, which can lead to symptoms of stress.

Coping with occupational stress for journalists refers to the cognitive and behavioral efforts journalists employ to manage and reduce the stress associated with their profession. There are four main types of coping strategies: task-focused coping, emotional-focused coping, distraction avoidance coping, and social diversion avoidance coping.

-In practice: The study showed that among the group of 231 journalists, the stress symptom score was "Moderate or higher" at 46.7%.Moderate (29.4%), severe (15.6%), very severe (1.7%), reflecting a significant burden of stress symptoms. These rates were significantly higher in unfavorable job configurations according to JCQ: 68.8% in the high-pressure job group (27.7% of the sample) and 79.2% in the high-pressure job group with low social support (22.9% of the sample), compared to the control groups. These results provide sufficient evidence to interpret DASS-21 stress symptoms as an indicator of occupational stress in this study. Furthermore, group-comparative analyses also revealed significant differences in the level of occupational stress by type of organization, area of ​​responsibility, and years of journalistic experience; gender, age, and specialization.

The most frequently reported stressors related to “psychological demands of work” were (1) Work requiring a very fast pace, (2) Constantly being busy with a tight workload, (3) The nature of the work requiring high intensity, and (4) Having to wait for work from other people or departments often slowing down work. These four prominent occupational stressors of the sample group differed significantly by type of organization (television most prominent), area of ​​responsibility (News highest), years of experience (increasing with age level) and age (increasing with age group).

Correlation analysis results showed that psychological demands at work were positively correlated (moderately) and social support in the workplace was negatively correlated (moderately) with stress symptom outcomes. Furthermore, in regression analysis, psychological demands at work were the strongest predictor of stress symptoms. This result remained stable even after the addition of the occupational-demographic control variable. In summary, the positive correlation between occupational stressors (psychological demands at work) and stress symptoms was consistent across statistical tests.

Of the four strategies for coping with occupational stress employed by the sample group, the most frequently used and dominant strategy was task-focused coping.Next is the social avoidance response, third is the distraction avoidance response, and the lowest is the emotional-focused response. Significant differences were observed in the use of coping strategies by gender, age group, type of organization, professional group, area of ​​responsibility, and years of experience. Coping strategies did not correlate significantly with stress symptoms.

When examining the mediating and regulating roles of response strategies, it was found that responses were primarily emotionally focused.It plays a mediating role in part in the relationship between psychological demands at work and stress symptoms. Including the mediating variable in the model reduces the direct impact of psychological demands on stress but does not eliminate it completely. This suggests that emotional coping only partially explains the influence of job demands on stress.Social avoidance and diversion play a moderating role, meaning that this response helps to reduce the impact of occupational stressors on the stress symptom outcomes of journalists.

11. Practical applications:

Prioritize managing psychological demands in the workplace to reduce intensity/volume/pace and interdepartmental latency. Organizations can build psychological safety, increase autonomy with feedback and recognition mechanisms, and establish peer/senior teams. Reporters practice task-focused response, planning under pressure, minimizing distractions, and focusing on emotions.

12. Future research directions:

Further approaches should follow a longitudinal/multi-timeline approach to examine the causal relationship between psychological demands and stress symptoms, and to further assess the role of autonomy and support in the workplace. In-depth interviews should also be conducted to clarify the specific stressors associated with the journalism industry.

13. Published works related to the thesis: None

INFORMATION ON MASTER'S THESIS

1. Full name: Hoang Phuoc Hanh 2. Sex: Female

3. Date of birth: March 7, 1988 4. Place of birth: Hanoi

5. Admission decision number: 5626/QD-XHNV; Dated December 29, 2023, issued by the Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (USSH), Vietnam National University, Hanoi.

6. Changes in academic process: None

7. Official thesis title: Occupational stress among journalists

8. Major: Psychology (Research-Oriented) 9. Code: 8310401

10. Supervisors: Dr. Tran Ha Thu; Faculty of Psychology, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi

11. Summary of the findings of the thesis:

Theoretical:

Occupational stress in journalists is defined as a state of psychological discomfort arising when journalists appraise that demands from the news-gathering environment exceed their capacity to meet them successfully. Stressors are the psychologically demanding features of journalistic work that may exceed available resources; when coupled with low job control (autonomy) and low social support, they can elicit stress symptoms. Coping with occupational stress refers to the cognitive and behavioral efforts journalists use to manage and reduce work-related stress. Four main coping strategies are considered: task focused coping, emotion-focused coping, avoidance distraction, and avoidance social diversion.

Epicirical:

Among 231 journalists, 46.7% scored “moderate or above” on the DASS-21 Stress scale (moderate 29.4%, severe 15.6%, extremely severe 1.7%), indicating a significant symptom burden. This proportion was markedly higher in adverse JCQ job configurations: 68.8% in the high-strain group (27.7% of the sample) and 79.2% in the ISO-strain group (22.9% of the sample), compared with the reference groups. These results provide convergent evidence to interpret DASS-21 Stress as an indicator of occupational stress symptoms in this study. Group comparisons also showed significant differences in stress by organization type, beat, and years of experience, as well as by sex, age, and professional role.

The most frequently reported psychological job demands were: (1) having to work very fast, (2) being constantly busy with back-to-back tasks, (3) having to work at high intensity, and (4) cross-unit dependencies/delays that slow one's work. These four salient stressors differ significantly by organization type (highest in television), beat (highest in current affairs), years of experience (increasing by bracket), and age group (increasing by age).

Correlation analyzes showed that psychological demands were positively and moderately associated with stress symptoms, whereas workplace social support was negative and moderately associated. In regression analyses, psychological demands emerge as the strongest predictor of stress symptoms; this pattern held after adding demographic household controls. Overall, the positive association between psychological job demands and stress symptoms was consistent across statistical tests.

Regarding the four coping strategies, task-focused coping was used most, followed by avoidance social diversion, avoidance distraction, and, least, emotion-focused coping. Use of coping strategies differed significantly by sex, age group, organization type, professional role, beat, and years of experience. The coping showed no significant zero-order correlation strategies with stress symptoms.

In tests of mechanisms, emotion-focused coping acted as a partial mediator between psychological job demands and stress symptoms: introducing the mediator reduced, but did not eliminate, the direct effect of demands on stress, indicating that emotion-focused coping accounts for part of the pathway. Avoidance social diversion functions as a moderator, buffering the impact of job stressors on journalists' stress symptoms.

12. Practical applicability:

Prioritize managing psychological job demands to reduce intensity/volume/pace and cross-unit delays. Organizations should foster psychological safety, increase autonomy with feedback/recognition mechanisms, and establish peer/senior support groups. Journalists should practice task focused coping and planning under pressure, while minimizing avoidance distraction and emotion-focused coping.

13. Further research directions:

Adopt longitudinal/multi-timepoint designs to test the causal relationship between psychological demands and stress symptoms, and to further assess the roles of workplace autonomy and support. Conduct in depth interviews to elucidate journalism-specific stressors.

14. Thesis-related publications: None