Stress Among Forest Personnel:A Meta-Synthesis

Though the field of stress has gained a lot importance in the last few decades, stress studies in the forestry sector are still on cross roads. Looking at the dearth of studies in the field of stress in forestry sector, this paper directs at reviewing the researches about the prevalent stress among the forest personnel. The study encompassed comprehensive review and analysis of physiological as well as psychological stress. A systematic review and meta-synthesis of stress studies was done. The studies met the eligibility criteria only if it had included stress as one of the measures directly or referred to the same indirectly in relation to measured variable in the article by last 50 years. A total of 19 studies/articles dealing with the stress among forestry staff were included in the present study. Both qualitative as well as quantitative analysis were incorporated in the study. The qualitative analysis was directed towards analysing the paper in terms of various methodologies adopted by the researchers and causes and effects of stress assessed. Further, quantitative analysis was conducted by assessing effect-sizes taking due consideration of methodological approach, source and practical significance of selected studies. The paper concludes with a note on importance and gap in stress related studies pertaining to forestry sector.