Exploring Construction Workers' Experiences of Stress in the Work Environment in Aotearoa/New Zealand

The construction industry is highly demanding, it has impacts on workers’ psychological, physiological and physical health; such as stress, cardiovascular diseases and injuries. This research aims to explore the experiences of stress for construction workers in their work environment in Aotearoa/New Zealand, and its impact on their health and wellbeing. This research had six participants from two construction organisations in Aotearoa/New Zealand. The construction organisations were recruited through the networking and the snowballing method. The participants were recruited through email from one construction organisation and through a toolbox talk from the other. This research used mixed-methods with a personal construct paradigm to underpin the methods. These methods used were the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ) and semi-structured interviews. The COPSOQ was used as a foundation for the semi-structured interviews which provided the main findings in this research.

The findings of this research addressed the gaps in the previous literature. The findings specifically identified seven themes including social dynamics, work expectations, job meaningfulness, autonomy at work, hazards at work, health and wellbeing, and life factors outside of work. Under the seven themes participants highlighted unique perspectives that shaped their subjective experiences associated with stress. These subjective experiences were influenced by factors including cultural background, childhood, and past experiences in personal and work life context. In certain cases, these experiences impacted overall quality of life and wellbeing in participants. This research addresses the practical implications, limitations and future directions of this project in the construction industry. For example, practical implications of this research included tailoring psychological support interventions to consider subjectivity of the experiences in construction workers, limitations of this research included time constraints, and future directions encouraged addressing the limitations of this research. This can promote interventions to manage the negative impacts of subjective experiences in association with stress in the construction industry.