Satisfacción, salud y estrés laboral del profesorado universitario según su situación contractual

Objective There’s a lot of literature about teachers’ work conditions and the effects of such conditions on them. The goal of this research focuses on the analysis of the effects derived from the type of labour relationship with the University on the psycho-social dimensions of satisfaction, stress and perceived health. Methods Quasi-experimental study on a sample of 145 university professors from the seven public universities from Catalonia (Spain). The data was obtained in April 2014, by means of ISTAS21 questionnaire, intermediate version, in Spanish. From the 21 subscales in the instrument, only seven were used for data-gathering since they encompassed the dimensions of interest. A series of ANOVA analyses were performed, taking the three psycho-social dimensions as dependent variables and work stability and dedication (e.g. full- vs. partial-time) as independent variables. Results Professors with full-time work and unstable contracts showed worse health (both physical and mental) despite being the youngest, as well as larger symptoms of stress and lower job-satisfaction, compared with full-time professors with stable contracts and even compared part-time-jobs professors. Conclusion Job-stability seems to be a central variable in work-quality and health for the professors whose labour situation is unstable, something that influences both their teaching and research quality.