engleski

PHYSICAL, MENTAL AND GENERAL HEALTH IN SEAFARERS: THE ROLE OF PERSONALITY TRAITS AND JOB AND RELATIONSHIP SATISFACTION

Previous research addressed seafaring as a highly demanding and stressful occupation that can have negative effects on mental and physical health. However, the research so far rarely considered some important individual and contextual factors that may be important in the explanation of seafarers’ health. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the independent contributions of three personality traits (extraversion, conscientiousness, and emotional stability), job satisfaction, and intimate relationship satisfaction in the explanation of seafarers’ subjective health, while controlling for seafarers' work experience, on-board work position, and BMI index. The conceptualization of subjective health included two domains (physical and mental), as well as self-assessment of general health status. The sample consisted of 180 male seafarers (35 masters, 19 chief engineers, 96 deck officers, and 60 engine officers), employed mostly in the international sea shipping, who declared that they were currently in intimate relationship (married, living with intimate partner, or in intimate relationship without living together). The research instrument included relevant sociodemographic and work-related questions, personality traits, job satisfaction, satisfaction by intimate relationship, and self-assessed measures of somatic symptoms, mental health, and general health status. The results of HRAs, as expected, showed the significant role of the tested predictors in the explanation of subjective health. However, comparisons of the explained variances of the three used measures of subjective health showed that used predictors were most successful in the explanation of mental health. Theoretical contribution and practical implications of the obtained results are discussed.

seafarers ; subjective health, personality ; job satisfaction ; satisfaction by intimate relationship

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