Journal of Nursing, Social Studies, Public Health and Rehabilitation » 2019 » num.1-2 » Use of social support as protection against the stress of the working poor

Use of social support as protection against the stress of the working poor

Zuzana Řimnáčová, Stanislav Ondrášek, Alena Kajanová
University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Institute of Social and Special-paedagogical Sciences, České Budějovice,Czech Republic

Korespondenční autor: Zuzana Řimnáčová (z.rimnacova@seznam.cz)

ISSN 1804-7181 (On-line)

Full verze:
Full version

Submitted:22. 7. 2019
Accepted: 12. 11. 2019
Published online: 31. 12. 2019

Summary

This article deals with the relationship between the stress and social support of the working poor. We assume that a person with low income is surrounded by a number of stressful events and could create more social networks and thus use social support more than a person who does not experience such situations.

The goal of this research was to find out whether social support of the working poor was so extensive that it could help in the protection against stress, which often arises due to a lack of finances.

This study was carried out in 2017 and at the beginning of 2018 in South Bohemia. It included 358 respondents whose income was at the minimum wage in 2017. We used the MOS and Holmes–Rahe Stress Inventory for social support standardized questionnaires. The data were statistically processed in the programme SPSS using correlations.

The results showed a large stress load with the risk of psychosomatic impacts and a low level of social support. The relationship between social support and the level of experienced stressful events was not confirmed. Although the working poor could use social support from the domain of Love, they do not. This article can positively affect the lack of data on the working poor.

Keywords: Low income; Minimum wage; Poverty; Protective factors; Social support; Stress; Working poor

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