TTLV: Occupational stress of reporters

MASTER'S THESIS INFORMATION

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 President of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.

6. Changes in training process: None

7. Thesis topic: Occupational stress of reporters

8. Major: Psychology (Research orientation); Code: 8310401

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

10. Summary of thesis results:

- In theory: Occupational stress in reporters: is the result of uncomfortable psychological symptoms arising from the reporter's self-assessment that the demands of the journalistic work environment exceed their ability to successfully meet them.

Occupational stressors in journalists include the psychological demands of the job specific to the journalistic environment that may exceed resources, and the lack of autonomy and social support that journalists experience may lead to symptoms of stress.

Coping with occupational stress in journalists is understood as the cognitive and behavioral efforts that journalists use to manage and reduce occupational stress. There are four main types of coping strategies: task-focused coping, emotion-focused coping, distraction-avoidance coping, and social diversion-avoidance coping.

-In practice: The study has shown that the results of stress symptoms according to the DASS-21 scale of the group of 231 reporters at the "Moderate or higher" scale accounted for 46.7% (moderate 29.4%, severe 15.6%, very severe 1.7%), reflecting a significant burden of stress symptoms. This rate was significantly higher in adverse job configurations according to the JCQ: 68.8% in the high-stress group (27.7% of the sample) and 79.2% in the high-stress with low social support group (22.9% of the sample), compared to the comparison groups. This result provides sufficient converging evidence to interpret DASS-21 stress symptoms as a symptom indicator of occupational stress in this study. In addition, group comparison analyses also showed significant differences in the level of occupational stress according to the type of agency, field of responsibility and years of experience in journalism; gender, age and expertise.

The most frequently reported “psychological demands of work” stressors were (1) Work requiring a very fast pace, (2) Being constantly busy with a rush of work, (3) The nature of the work requiring high intensity, and (4) Having to wait for work from other people or departments that often slows down the work. These four prominent occupational stressors of the sample group differed significantly by agency type (television most prominent), field of responsibility (News highest), years of experience (increasing by grade), and age (increasing by age group).

The results of the correlation analysis showed that Psychological demands at work were positively associated with the average level, Social support at work was negatively associated with the average level with the stress symptom outcome, and in the regression analysis, Psychological demands at work was the strongest predictor of stress symptoms. This result remained stable even when the demographic-occupational control variable was added. In summary, the positive association between the occupational stressor, psychological demands at work, and stress symptoms was consistent across statistical tests.

Of the four occupational stress coping strategies used by the sample group, the most commonly used dominant strategy was task-focused coping,Next is social avoidance coping, third is distraction avoidance coping, lowest is emotion-focused coping. Among them, there are significant differences in the use of coping strategies according to gender, age group, type of agency, professional group, area of ​​responsibility, years of experience. Coping strategies do not have a significant correlation with stress symptoms.

When examining the mediating and moderating roles of coping strategies, it was found that emotion-focused copingplayed a partial mediating role in the relationship between psychological demands at work and stress symptoms. Including the mediating variable in the model reduced the direct effect of psychological demands on stress but did not eliminate it completely. This suggests that emotional coping only explains part of the effect of job demands on stress.Social diversion avoidance coping serves a moderating role, meaning that it helps to reduce the impact of occupational stressors on reporters' stress symptom outcomes.

11. Practical application:

Prioritize managing the psychological demands of work to reduce intensity/volume/pace and interdepartmental delays. Organizations can build psychological safety, increase autonomy with feedback mechanisms and peer/senior groups. Reporters practice task-focused coping, planning under pressure, avoiding distractions and focusing on emotions.

12. Further research directions:

Further research should be longitudinal/multi-point in time to examine the causal relationship between psychological demands and stress symptoms, and further assess the role of autonomy and workplace support. In-depth interviews should also be used to further clarify the specific stressors of journalism.

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.

Empirical:

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