Exploring and Reducing Stress in Young Restaurant Workers: Results of a Randomized Field Trial

Abstract

Purpose.

Young adult restaurant workers face the dual stressors of work adjustment and managing personal responsibilities. We assessed a new psychosocial/health promotion training designed to reduce these stressors in the context of restaurant work.

Design.

A cluster-randomized trial of a training program, with surveys administered approximately 2 weeks before training and both 6 and 12 months after training.

Setting.

A national restaurant chain.

Subjects.

A total of 947 restaurant workers in 28 restaurants.

Measures.

Personal stress, exposure to problem coworkers, and personal and job characteristics.

Intervention.

Team Resilience (TR) is an interactive program for stress management, teamwork, and work-life balance. TR focuses on “five Cs” of resilience: compassion, commitment, centering community, and confidence.

Analysis.

Mixed-model (multilevel) analysis of covariances.

Results.

Compared with workers in control stores, workers in TR-trained stores showed significant reductions over time in exposure to problem coworkers (F[2, 80.60] = 4.48; p = .01) and in personal stress (F[2, 75.28] = 6.12; p = .003).

Conclusion.

The TR program may help young workers who face the challenges of emerging adulthood and work-life balance.

Keywords

Stress Prevention Health Promotion Emerging Adults Prevention Research Manuscript format: research Research purpose: intervention testing/program evaluation Study design: cluster-randomized trial Outcome measure: stress Setting: workplace Health focus: stress management Strategy: behavior change Target population age: young adult restaurant workers Target population circumstances: N/A

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