مقایسه روابط سببی با استرس شغلی بین کارکنان مهاجر تایلندی با و بدون تربیت والدین The comparison of causal relationships of job stress between Thai immigrant employees with and without rearing their aging parents

Introduction The survey conducted by WHO on employee population of about 1,900 million people regarding worldwide risk of problems related to their work showed that there are 160 million employees experiencing illness. There are 8 percent of them who have occupational stress, which is the same as Thai employees who suffer stress and anxiety the most (32.24 percent) and were in working age of 26-30 years in 2014[1]. The occupational stress is a disadvantage resulting in the loss of working potential and in mental health illnesses[1]. The development of Thai society focuses on industrial society under globalization, which has become the turning point of society, with economic changes in Thailand including Thai immigrant employees[2] under AEC policies[3]. A survey disclosed that Thai immigrant employees still tended to work in the same regions, rather than in different regions[4, 5]. Some studies explained that migrants who were employees need to adapt themselves to new environment while leaving their aging parents to live alone in rural areas. When their aging parents have illnesses, it leads to anxiety to them[6]. Several studies found that poor working conditions, job insecurity, poor occupation, great distances, and inconvenient transportation were associated with occupational stress, anxiety, and depression[7-10]. For example, some paper in China concluded that time period, wages, family support, housing conditions, age, and job characteristics were related to mental health[11], and job demands (such as, carrying heavy loads, an awkward posture, and psychological demands), decision latitude, (such as, skill variety and job control) and support (such as, supervisory control and the safety climate) were all linked to both mental and physical health issues[12, 13-18], high job responsibility[19], or different occupational characteristics, such as job stress among Thai farm worker[20], poor wages associated with job stress and pressure[21] including great distance[17, 21]. In contradiction, some immigrant employees had conflicts between work and rearing their family (i.e. children, spouse, and/or aging parent). This became a psychosocial problem and led to poor mental health[22]. For example, male migrants who were separated from family always suffered from mental health, fear, anxiety, and depression [23]. These are also found among females who were working as maids[24]. That is to say, job conditions were important factor that contributed to mental health[17]. It is important and necessary to compare the causal relationships and job stress among employees between those who were supporting their aging parents to the other group who were not. As a result, operational definitions consisted of, first, working conditions, means questions about exploitation, job characteristics, working environment, and workloads, which have effected job stress; second, supporting aging parents who are older than 60 years old and live in their original province; third, wages represent the total incomes from both part-time and full-time jobs in Thai baht/month (1 baht ≈ $35); fourth, employees are rural-urban migrants who work in Bangkok (n ¼ 352 cases) and Nonthaburi provinces (n ¼ 248 cases), whose original provinces are neither of these provinces, fifth, job stress is pressure, occupational stress, burnout, job control, job-confliction-related to poor mental health and job potency, and finally, the distance traveled between their home town and the workplace in kilometers.