Psychosocial stressors among Bangladesh’s ready-made garment workers: a pilot study

Purpose Bangladesh is the second largest exporter of ready-made garments worldwide and produces substantially for European markets. Some studies have investigated the physical working conditions of factory workers, yet studies on psychosocial stressors are scarce. A previous study by the authors revealed high levels of psychologically adverse working conditions linked to poor self-reported health outcomes and increased levels of hair cortisol. In a larger, subsequent study, including a pilot test, these results are to be replicated and extended by further psychosocial stressors. The results of the pilot study are presented below.

Methods In summer 2020, fully structured interviews shall be conducted with 1800 workers from 3 factories around Dhaka, Bangladesh. Six hundred hair samples shall be collected for hair cortisol analysis. The pilot study was conducted in January 2020 to address the length, acceptance and understanding of the interview and the acceptance of hair sampling.

Results Fifty-six workers from 2 factories took part in the pilot study (78.6% female, mean age 25.4), of which 14 provided hair samples. Interviews took about 50 minutes, hair sampling 13 minutes. All questions seemed to be accepted by the workers, yet some questions were difficult to understand. Workers frequently reported obligations towards their families (92.9%), fear of making mistakes at work (76.8%), little freedom of decision (62.5%) and time pressure (55.4%). Yet, they also reported feeling part of the team (100%), receiving support from colleagues (98.2%) and recognition (92.9%).

Conclusions For the main study, the interview was shortened from 111 to 77 items by e.g. removing items without meaningful variance. Questions difficult to understand were rephrased in a manner suggested by the interviewers. For some questions, the response format was simplified.

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Artikel online veröffentlicht:
02. September 2021