The Perceptions of Occupational Stress of Mental Health Professionals Practicing in Texas Correctional and Non-Correctional Settings: A Preliminary Examination

Background: The mental healthcare field and corrections are both known to be stressful work settings. Mental health professionals who endure a vast amount of occupational stress can not only be destructive to themselves but also their patients and organization. Professionals practicing in corrections may experience another layer of stress due to the harsh work environment. Correctional facilities are documented to have high turnover and burnout rates of security staff, medical personnel and other operational employees; however, no study had focused on mental health professionals within this environment. The previous literature lacked any insight into how the correctional settings may influence a mental health professional’s stress level. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to measure occupational stress of mental health professionals in correctional and non-correctional settings to determine if there is a difference in stress scores. Methods: A sample of correctional mental health professionals (n = 20) and non-correctional mental health professionals (n = 26) completed the Health and Safety Executive Management Standards Indicator Tool. Results: A MANOVA analysis indicated a difference in stress scores between correctional mental health professionals and non-correctional mental health professionals (F (1, 44) = 3.679, p = .004; observed power = .946; and effect size (η2) = .404.). Conclusion: Mental health professionals in correctional settings reported higher levels of occupational stress than those working in non-correctional settings. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Education

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Curriculum and Instruction

Grantor

University of Houston

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Riaz, Manahil

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Robin, Bernard R.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• McNeil, Sara G.
• Hausmann, Robert C.
• Carr, Joel L.

• Occupational stress
• Work related stress
• Mental health professionals

Statement dc:rights

• The author of this work is the copyright owner. UH Libraries and the Texas Digital Library have their permission to store and provide access to this work. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of this work is prohibited except with permission of the author(s).

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10657/3134

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uh-ir.tdl.org:10657/3134