Research on Job Stressors and Mental Health of Construction Practitioners in China

Affected by the characteristics of the construction industry, construction practitioners suffer from many job stressors, leading to high risk of poor mental health. By adopting a mixed research method, this paper aims to identify construction practitioners’ job stressors and unravel the relationship between job stressors and mental health status. A literature review, a questionnaire survey, and interviews were conducted to achieve the research objectives. Factor analysis results indicate seven major job stressors among Chinese construction practitioners, including: job demand, welfare and social economy, workplace injustice, personal and interpersonal relationship, work-family conflict, job role and workplace condition. Descriptive analysis results show that construction practitioners had serious depression (56.5%) and anxiety (51.9%) problems, but the stress condition (22.1%) was in a moderate level. Furthermore, the results of the correlation analysis reveal that the key job stressors affecting construction practitioners’ depression were work-family conflict stressors (0.591), personal and interpersonal relationship stressors (0.577) and welfare and social economic stressors (0.531), whereas the main job stressors affecting construction practitioners’ anxiety were personal and interpersonal relationship stressors (0.601) and work-family conflict stressors (0.578). The findings of this paper will serve as a theoretical foundation for construction companies to implement efficient mental health management strategies for their employees.