Gender and age differences in the experience of occupational stress among university lecturers in Edo State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined gender and age differences in the experience of occupational stress among University lecturers in Nigeria. Two research questions and two hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The sample consisted of 350 lecturers randomly selected from seven universities in Edo State, Nigeria. The instrument used for data collection was self-designed questionnaire tagged “Experience of Occupational Stress Questionnaire” (EOSQ) and it had reliability co-efficient of 0.82. T-test statistical tool was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance and the findings indicated that there is no significant differences between male and female university lecturers in Nigeria in their experiences of occupational stress. It was also found that there is a significant difference between young and older university lecturers in Nigeria in their experience of occupation stress. Based on the findings, the following recommendations were made: Government and private university education service providers should improve on the working conditions of university lecturers and that university lecturers on their part should avoid stress activities in order to reduce occupational stress among them.

Keywords: Experience, Occupational stress, University Lecturers, Gender, Age