Perceived Stress, Coping and Mental Well-being in Information Technology Professionals

Pages: 137-142
Shreyasi Paul (Department of Psychiatry, Masina Hospital, Mumbai, Maharashtra)

A large proportion of India’s youth works in the Information Technology (IT) sector. Although each job comes with its own stress, jobs in the IT sector are somewhat different, as they often entail high competitiveness, have less job security, and require working with aggressive deadlines. There are only a handful of studies on subjective appraisal of stress, coping and its relationship with mental well-being in IT professionals in the Indian context. This study aimed to assess severity of perceived stress in IT professionals and to assess their coping strategies and mental well-being. It also purported to understand the impact of perceived stress and coping strategies in mental well-being among IT professionals. This study was conducted on a group of 170 participants selected through convenience sampling who were sent questionnaires pertaining to their mental health via Google survey forms. Majority of the participants showed moderate levels of stress (73 %), and perceived stress was negatively correlated with mental well-being (Pearson correlation coefficient r = – 0.658). The study also discusses the correlation of various coping strategies with mental well-being in the participants. The study sheds light on certain important predictors of stress in the IT work field, and the need for addressing certain unhealthy coping strategies used there. It also emphasizes the use of healthier strategies in order to develop a more stable IT work force.