The Aircrew Stress Study sample

Okay, enough background information for the time being. It's time to start telling you some of the things I learned from the Aircrew Stress Study. I'll begin with a brief rundown on who the participants were -- otherwise known as 'the sample.'

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, the Aircrew Stress Study data were collected by means of an online survey questionnaire. Participants were recruited mainly through notices on aviation message boards, and by word of mouth.

In the end, there were 1,078 questionnaire responses. Of those, 411 were from pilots and 667 were from cabin crew.

Here are a few facts about who was in the sample:

Gender

• of the Pilots, 92% were male, and 8% were female
• of Cabin Crew, 36% were male, and 64% were female

Nationality

• Most of the respondents -- about 66% of both Pilots and Cabin Crew -- were from the United States.
• Another 20% of Cabin Crew, and 16% of the Pilots were from other countries where English is the primary language: Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand.

In all, Pilots of 33 different nationalities, and Cabin Crew of 44 different nationalities, responded to the survey.

If you're curious, here's the whole list of nationalities (country names in alphabetical order):

Pilots were from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Korea, Malta, Mexico, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Philippines, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela.

Cabin Crew were from Albania, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Cuba, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Kuwait, Lithuania, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States.

While it's interesting to know the nationalities of those who participated in the study, nationality was less important for this research than where the crew members were based. Where a crew is based or 'domiciled,' usually indicates under which set of rules they operate when they're flying. For example, crews domiciled in the U.S. are subject to FAA rules, while crews domiciled in Europe have to comply with the rules of the Joint Aviation Authority of the European Community, and so on.

The various aviation rule-making authorities around the world vary somewhat on crew work rules and issues such as maximum duty time, required rest, age limits for licensing, etc. Thus, it was important to know where the survey respondents were based so that when comparisons of the groups were made, differences in rules could be accounted for.

Here's the breakdown of where the survey respondents were domiciled, by region, regardless of nationality: The largest groups were USA (about 67%); Europe (about 13%); and Canada (about 10%).

In the next few posts, I'll offer further details about the 'demographic characteristics' of the people who participated in the Aircrew Stress Study. Cabin Crew will be next, and then the Pilots. Stay tuned...

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