Background and Aims: The COVID-19 outbreak is the biggest global crisis in generations having severe and far-reaching repercussions for the health system, creating high prevalence of severe posttraumatic stress symptoms for physical therapists, highlighting the need for psychological help. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate how resilience functions as a mediator in the relationship between anxiety and personality among Karachi based physiotherapists.
Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted among physiotherapists of Karachi using a convenience sampling technique from August to December 2021. The data was collected using a 10-Item Personality Inventory, Brief Resilience Scale, and Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale questionnaire.
Results: Among 70 participants, the emotional stability trait (7.6±1.4) had higher mean values on the TIPI. On the HAM-A scale, 81.4% physiotherapists had moderate to severe anxiety followed by 15.7% mild to moderate anxiety whereas 92.9% were shown to have normal resilience. Despite all correlations being negligible, only the association between agreeableness and resilience was non-significantly higher (r=0.83).
Conclusion: It was concluded that there was no association between the anxiety state and resilience among physiotherapists, although there was a non-significantly higher relationship between agreeableness and openness to experiences personality traits. A high prevalence of moderate to severe anxiety was noted while using a standard resilience strategy.
The research captures the essential and fascinating relationship between important variables of occupational role stress (ORS), daily hassles (DHs), coping strategies (CSs) and psychological well-being (PWB) of government secondary school teachers (GSSTs) in the city of Lahore, Pakistan. The study used mixed method approach, namely qualitative approach was used to collect vast, elaborative information about the variables in the indigenous context, whereas the quantitative research approach was used to determine the exact type of relationship that existed between the variables of the study. An exhaustive literature review lead to the generation of three research questions for the study. The first research question focused on the occupational role stressors (ORSS) and daily hassles (DHs) experienced by government secondary school teachers (GSSTs). The second one was how the occupational role stressors (ORSS) and daily hassles (DHs) effect the psychological well-being (PWB) of government secondary school teachers (GSSTs) and the third one dealt with the coping strategies (CSs) government secondary school teachers (GSSTs) adopt to deal with occupational role stress (ORS). For the qualitative section three different samples of GSSTs were systematically drawn to conduct focus groups. The main themes extracted from focus groups highlighted GSST’s role overload, role ambiguity, resource inadequacy, lack of reward and recognition, lack of support from students and parents, lack of support from management authorities, job insecurity, confrontative coping, avoidant coping, positive appraisal and social support seeking coping. The five main hypotheses were stated for the quantitative estimation of the variables. The relationship between occupational role stress (ORS), daily hassles (DH) and psychological well-being (PWB) of government secondary school teachers (GSSTs) with their adopted coping strategies (CSs). Demographic variables specifically gender, age, marital status, education, occupation, family annual income, number of children, family size and its effect on GSSTs’ assessment of variables of study. To test the hypotheses purposive sampling strategy ix was used to select government secondary schools and then to draw a sample of 800 GSSTs. The instruments administered were occupational role stress scale (ORSS) by Sohail and Ahmed (2012), daily hassles scale (DHs) by Javed and Sohail (2011), revalidation DHs by Islam and Sohail (2012), coping strategies scale (CSs) by craver (1989 & 1995), psychological wellbeing scale (PWB) by Ryff, (1989) and demographic sheet (DS) (Sohail, 2015) in a booklet with response sheet with relevant instructions in Urdu language. The validation study revealed that all scales have high alpha coefficient values above 0.7. The ethical considerations and procedures of the study were clearly documented before the actual initiation of the study. The actual process of data collection fully followed the guidelines as laid down by American psychological association (APA). After the administration of all questionnaires; the responses were coded for data entry on SPSS version 20. The responses were analyzed under both descriptive and inferential statistical methods. Correlation, ANOVA, linear and hierarchical regression was applied. The results of Pearson correlation points the significant positive relationship between ORS and DHs (r = .52**, p <.01). ORS also had significant negative relationship with PWB (r = -.64**, p<.01) and CS (r = -.49**, p<.01). DHs had significant negative relationship with PWB (r = -.47**, p<.01) and CSs (r = -.25**, p<.01). Results also indicated strong positive correlation between PWB and CS (r = .56**, p<.01). Results analyzed through hierarchical regression analysis showed that ORS along with demographic was a significant predictor of DHs p<.05. It was also seen that ORS along with marital status was also a significant predictor of DHs p<.05. Further it showed that ORS along with marital status, age and gender was a significant predictor of DHs p<.05, the study extracted meaningful information that would help in understanding the unique relationship between variables in the Pakistani context. The researcher would like to recommend that teachers, head masters, principals should initiate participatory action research (par) type of action research in collaboration with government officials, members of bureaucracy and public policy makers so to improve the PWB of GSSTs. Par programs should coordinate with both conventional and social media for promoting healthy habits that would ensure PWB is enhanced not only for the teachers but also for the general public. The study extracted meaningful information that would help in understanding the unique relationship between independent variable and dependent variables in the Pakistani context. The study also develops an upfront theory, conducts quantitative and qualitative analysis. The research pivots on concept of developing an effective understanding of the pertinent factors that contribute to ORS and DHs experienced by GSSTs on one hand and the adoption of particular CSs and the resultant PWB. The GSSTs were provided with wellness workshops and a booklet for future reference. This may ensure that the GSSTs develop their own helpful CSs so they are able to reduce the impact of ORS and DHs upholds their PWB.