Relationship between Depression,Anxiety,Sense of Coherence,Social Support and Religious Involvement in a Small Rural Community Affected by Industrial Relations Conflict

Abstract

The paper reports a study of stress responses in workers at a sawmill in a small rural community which had been affected by prolonged industrial relations conflict. Workers went on strike in July 1997 over a dispute over contributions to a provident fund and there was much conflict and hardship in the community in the ensuing months. In December, a large sample of workers completed a set of scales which measured anxiety, depression, specific impacts of the strike and three stress response moderators (social support, sense of coherence [SOC] and religious practice). In a factor analysis, two factors were identified. The first was interpreted as a “response to the strike” factor. The positive pole of this factor was associated with having difficulty coping with the stress of the strike, being sensitive to the negative impact of unfair labour practices, responding positively to trade union activity and having a larger number of social supports. The second factor was interpreted as representing “negative versus positive cognitive set”. The positive pole of this factor was associated with higher levels of anxiety, depression and somatic symptoms and low levels of SOC and involvement in religious practice. Although the correlational methodology does not allow for the demonstration that particular variables served as stress response moderators, the results suggested that response to the strike was largely independent of the stress response moderators and was probably mediated by other social and interpersonal factors. The inverse relation between anxiety and depression, on the one hand, and SOC, on the other, replicates previous findings and is discussed in terms of incompatibility of competing cognitive sets.