Mental Health, Job Stress, and Character Traits in Japanese Male Workers

[ABSTRACT] Objective : The objective of this study was to analyze the association of workers' mental health with job stress and character traits. Methods : We distributed a questionnaire to Japanese workers at 3 companies. Mental health and job stress were assessed with the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire and the Occupational Psychological Stress Assessment Chart. We divided the respondents into those with good mental health, poor mental health, and other. We compared the level of job stress and character traits between workers with poor mental health (n=32) and those with good mental health (n=34). We performed logistic regression analysis with mental health as a dependent variable and job stress and character traits as independent variables. Results : Poor mental health was associated with factors related to job stress, including "having a large amount of work," "asked to always be ready for work," "the current work is not right for me," and "no place to talk about workplace problems" and the character trait of "feeling distressed for an extended period of time because of a past event." Conclusions : Job stress and negative character traits are associated with poor mental health.