A little background

Before I begin posting research results, I'm going to tell you some background in order to set the stage. After that we'll get to the juicier parts.

When I talk about my research, the first thing people usually want to know is, "How did you get into this line of work in the first place?" How did I come to study the health and well-being of people who fly for a living?

I blame it on some of my relatives!

I have several close relatives who work in commercial aviation. For years I'd been listening to their 'war stories' about flying. Most of the stories were about humorous things that had happened, or about their adventures on layovers. But during the period immediately following 9/11, the whole tone of the tales changed dramatically -- as did the whole experience of flying for a living.

After 9/11, the stories I was hearing most often were about how stressful their flying jobs were, and how they just didn't enjoy flying as much as they used to. For one thing, they now had to deal with many new, cumbersome (and sometimes contradictory) security regulations and procedures. For another, they were in constant fear of furloughs and pay cuts as the aviation industry went into a serious economic downturn. I heard my flying relatives worry constantly about the stability of their jobs and paychecks. In short, they were really stressed.

I had been interested in the 'stress-health link' since graduate school, so naturally I began to wonder if the stressfulness of my flying relatives' jobs would ultimately affect their health and well-being. One day it dawned on me that this might be a particularly appropriate research topic for me to pursue. I ran the idea by my family and a few colleagues. Everyone was enthusiastic, so I decided to proceed.

At first I thought to do a quick little project: design a survey, pass it out to a few dozen pilots and flight attendants, crunch the data, and write a report. I figured this would take about three months to accomplish, start to finish.

Now -- more than four years later -- here I am, still going strong with this line of inquiry, and with no end in sight. What I first conceived of as a 'quick little project' has taken on a life of its own -- and has taken over my life!

But I'm not complaining. I love how all of this turned out, and I intend to carry on with what I am doing into the foreseeable future.

Next: Formulating the research question...

** Copyright © 2007 by Bobbie Sullivan. All rights reserved. **