Holliston, Kristine (2021) How do Employee Relationships Influence the Stress-Coping Process and Work-Stress Experience? Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
Unfortunately, employee stress claims continue to rise. This study explored how individual differences, specifically employee relationship statuses and perceived social support (PSS), influence the workplace stress-coping processes and affective outcomes using Lazarus and Folkman’s transactional model. A hypothesis predicted that employees in-a-relationship would experience differences in stress-coping processes and PSS compared to employees not-in-a-relationship. A research question investigated whether relationship status and PSS influenced links of the transactional model. This quantitative cross-sectional study used a five-nation (Australia, Japan, China, Hungary, and Singapore) archival data set of 1782 employees. Established measures were used for primary appraisal (PA), secondary appraisal (SA), PSS, emotional focused coping (EFC), problem-focused coping (PFC), seeking social support (SSS), negative affect (NegAff), and positive affect (PosAff). An independent samples t-test indicated that participants in-a-relationship had higher mean scores for PSS, SA, PFC, and lower NegAff than participants not-in-a-relationship. There was no mean difference for EFC, SSS, and PosAff. Hayes PROCESS moderation analyses found that relationship status moderated with a weak enhancing effect the links between SA and EFC, and PA and NegAff. PSS moderated with a slight buffering effect the link between PA and SA and slightly enhanced the links between SA and PFC; EFC and PosAff. Despite this study’s cross-sectional design, results suggest that relationship status and PSS influence the stress-coping process. Consequently, interventions and policies should be individualized and target PSS to increase employee coping and resilience to stress and minimize stressors' impacts on employees' health, well-being, and productivity.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
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| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Psychology and Counselling (1 Jan 2015 - 31 Dec 2021) |
| Supervisors: | Michael Ireland; Yong Goh |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) |
| Date Deposited: | 28 Jul 2025 01:00 |
| Last Modified: | 28 Jul 2025 01:00 |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | employee ; stress ; coping ; affective ; relationships |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52421 |
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