Hassles in the air : Stressful events on trips

'Stress' is a term that can mean many things. It can be of the physical variety -- too hot, too cold, to damp, too dry -- too much exertion, not enough rest. It can be of the emotional variety -- worries, concerns, disappointments, frustrations, and so on.

My research focuses mostly on the emotional kind of stress -- the kind that causes anxiety and other uncomfortable feelings. This kind of stress can wear people down over time and affect their physical and emotional health and well-being.

There is a time element that is important in identifying stressors and evaluating their effects. Some stressors occur as brief events. Short-term stressful events usually can be managed quite well by the individual. You deal with the event, and then it passes. In and of itself, a brief stressful event does not do much damage (although if they happen often enough they certainly can add to the overall stress load).

I call these brief, stressful events that happen to crew 'hassles in the air.' For the pilots and flight attendants who took the Aircrew Stress Study survey, these turned out to contribute a relatively small amount to an individual's overall stress load.

At first, this surprised me -- but the more I learned about flying jobs, the better I understood why this was so. The kinds of 'hassles' encountered by crew in the course of a flight were mostly the kinds of things that they were specifically trained to handle. Thus they were more likely to be perceived as annoyances rather than as true stressors -- with a few exceptions.

The survey participants were presented with lists of statements that described things that could happen on any trip. They were asked to rate, on a four-point scale, how stressful they thought each would be: not at all stressful; mildly stressful; moderately stressful; or very stressful.

Pilots responded to a list of things related to operating the aircraft. Flight attendants responded to a list of things that could happen in the cabin. And everyone rated a list of things that could happen to any crew member during a trip.

For the analysis, the average scores for the items were compared to determine which were least and most stressful, overall. Next, the analysis looked for any differences between pilots and flight attendants. Finally, the responses were categorized according to gender, age group, domicile region, type of carrier, and so on, to see if any significant differences emerged.

There were quite a few differences in the response patterns of pilots compared to flight attendants, and vice versa. There also were some differences related to gender and age, and among crews who worked for different kinds of carriers.

In the next several posts I'll present some of the details about the results for these 'hassles in the air' -- the stressful things that can happen on any trip.

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