Factors associated with staff stress and work satisfaction in services forpeople with intellectual disability

Staff stress and morale have been identified as major issues affecting the quality of services for people with intellectual disability. The present st udy investigates factors directly and indirectly associated with staff gene ral distress, job strain and work satisfaction amongst staff in services fo r people with intellectual disability. As part of a large-scale survey of s taff in services for people with intellectual disability, information was c ollected from 450 staff concerning general distress, job strain and work sa tisfaction, and a wide range of factors potentially associated with these o utcomes. Path analyses revealed that three factors accounted for 28% of the variance in general distress scores: (I)wishful thinking, (2) stress linke d to work-home conflict and (3) role ambiguity. Six factors accounted for 5 0% of the variance in job strain scores: (I) wishful thinking, (2) stress l inked to a lack of staff support, (3) alienative commitment, (4) role ambig uity, (5) stressors linked to a low status job and (6) working longer contr acted hours. Six factors accounted for 66% of the variance in work satisfac tion scores: (I) stress linked to a low status job, (2) support from superv isors, (3) influence over work decisions, (4) alienative commitment, (5) su pport from colleagues and (6) older staff age. A range of factors indirectl y associated with the three outcome measures was also identified. The model s of general distress, job strain and work satisfaction empirically derived in the present study confirm and extend previous research in this area. Th e implications for organizations and future research are discussed.