Exploring the Impact of Mental Health Stressors on the Construction Workforce

Construction workers are regularly exposed to a wide range of stressors that compromise their mental health. These stressors can be mitigated or eliminated by tailor-made strategies to reduce their stress levels and promote better health, but first they must be identified, ranked, and analyzed. To achieve this, a survey questionnaire was developed and distributed to 343 construction workers to gather first-hand information about the work-related mental health challenges they experience. The responses revealed that the most impactful stressors are heavy workloads, long working hours, and work-related fatigue. The results were analyzed by the one-way analysis of variance method and revealed significant differences in levels of stress caused by variables such as marital status, job role, and number of children. Married individuals reported more stress related to financial insecurity and work-life imbalance, and those with children reported more difficulty in balancing family responsibilities with long working hours. The Spearman correlation analysis revealed significant relationships between mental health stressors precipitated by workloads, organizational factors, and tasks. The findings of this study offer insights for policymakers that will help them formulate interventions that promote sound mental health for construction workers.