Association of quality of life and job stress in occupational workforce of India: Findings from a cross-sectional study on software professionals

BACKGROUND: There is limited scientific evidence on the relationship of job stress with quality of life (QoL). PURPOSE: This study aims to explore different domains of job stress affecting IT/ITES professionals and estimate the levels of stress that these professionals endure to reach positive levels of QoL given that other determinants operating between these two variables are accounted for. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We estimated levels of stress that software professionals would have endured to reach positive levels of QoL considering that other factors operating between these two variables are accounted for. The study participants comprised 1071 software professionals who were recruited using a mixed sampling method. Participants answered a self-administered questionnaire containing questions on job stress, QoL, and confounders. RESULTS: All the domains (physical, psychological, social, and environmental) of QoL showed statistically significant positive associations with increasing stress domains of autonomy, physical infrastructure, work environment, and emotional factors. CONCLUSIONS: The respondents clearly found the trade-off of higher stress to be acceptable for the improved QoL they enjoyed. It is also possible that stress might actually be responsible for improvements in QoL either directly or through mediation of variables such as personal values and aspirations. Yerkes-Dodson law and stress appraisal models of Folkman and Lazarus may explain the plausible positive association.