Mood Emot.  2021 Nov;19(3):101-109. 10.35986/me.2021.19.3.101.

Relationship between Depression and Stress-Coping Strategies in Public Enterprise Workers Whose Workplaces Were Relocated to a New Environment

• Joo M
• Yoon BH
• Song JH
• Kim K
• Kang H
• Park S
• Jeong Y
• Yun H
• Lee J
• Choi K

• KMID: 2525659
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.35986/me.2021.19.3.101

Abstract

Background
In this study, the relationship between depression and stress-coping strategies among public enterprise workers whose workplaces were relocated to a newly-built innovation city was investigated.
Methods
This study included a total of 922 public enterprise workers living in Naju Innovation City. Along with their sociodemographic data, each subject was assessed concerning depression, occupational stress, and stress-coping strategies using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale(CES-D), Korean Occupational Stress Scale (KOSS), and stress-coping scale (SCS), respectively. Logistic regression was performed to investigate the impact of the relevant factors on depressive symptoms.
Results
The overall prevalence of depressive symptoms was 14%. Some sociodemographic variables, the total scores of the KOSS, and four subscales of the SCS revealed significant differences between the depressed and normal groups. Multivariate regression analysis revealed that the KOSS (odds ratio [OR], 1.17; p<0.001) and SCS, such as problem-solving-focused (OR, 0.75; p<0.001), emotion-focused (OR, 1.15; p<0.05), and wishful-thinking-focused (OR, 1.10; p<0.05), were significantly associated with depression.
Conclusion
The results indicated that depressive symptoms were highly prevalent among workers whose workplaces were relocated. In addition, these symptoms were found to be related with occupational stress and stress-coping strategies. Our findings also suggest that promoting healthy stress-coping strategies and reducing occupational stress may help in preventing the occurrence of depression and managing depressed workers.

Keyword

Depressive symptoms; Workers; Occupational stress; Coping skills