THE JOB STRESS SURVEY - MEASURING GENDER DIFFERENCES IN OCCUPATIONAL STRESS

Stress in the workplace is a major problem, with extensive costs to in dividuals, organizations and society. In order to modify the adverse e ffects of occupational stress on employee productivity, absenteeism, h ealth and well-being, more sensitive measures of specific stressor eve nts are needed. Person-environment fit and transactional process theor y guided the construction and development of a new measure, the Job St ress Survey (JSS), which assesses the perceived severity of 30 job str essor events and how often they occur in a variety of occupational set tings. Research findings with the JSS show that overall stress levels are similar for men and women, but numerous gender differences were fo und in the perceived severity and frequency of occurrence of individua l stressor events.