The study aimed at analyzing the influence of self-esteem, stress and social support on seafarers’ quality of life and providing basic data for developing programs to improve their quality of life.
Data of 120 seafarers, trained at the Sailors Educational Institution located in Busan, Korea were collected for a month in May, 2013.
The Korean version of the Self-Esteem Scale translated by Jeon Byeongjae (in 1974), which was originally developed by Rosenberg (in 1965), was used to measure the level of self-esteem. The level of stress was measured by the translated version of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) by Park Junho and Seo Yeongseok (in 2010), which was initially developed by Cohen, Kamarck and Mermelstein (in 1983). In addition, the level of social support was measured by the translated version of Medical Outcomes Study-Social Support Survey (MOS-SSS) by Im Mingyeong (in 2002), which was initiated by Sherbourne and Stewart of the Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) Team in 1991. The level of quality of life was measured by the Korean version of the WHO Quality of Life Scale Abbreviated Version (WHOQOL-BRIEF), which was translated by Min Seonggil, Kim Gwangil and Park Ilho (in 2002). It was based on the World Health Organization Quality of Life-100 (WHOQOL-100, 1998) and originally developed by the World Health Organization.
The collected data were analyzed by Cronbach''s alpha, descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson''s correlation coefficient and stepwise multiple regression using the SPSS 18.0 Program.
The results are as follows.
1. The levels of self-esteem, stress, social support and quality of life are shown in Table 4. The average levels of self-esteem, stress, social support and quality of life are 2.32(±0.55), 1.98(±0.48), 2.43(±0.83) and 3.13(±0.60), respectively.
2. The analysis results of quality of life based on general characteristics show significant differences, with education levels (F=5.76, p=.004), weekly frequency of exercise (F=5.10, p=.002) and job satisfaction levels (t=-3.18 p=.002) being examined in detail.
3. The quality of life shows a positive correlation with self-esteem (r=.64, p<.001) and social support (r=.64, p<.001), and a negative correlation with stress (r=-.66, p<.001).
4. The results of Multiple Regression Analysis show that significant variables influencing the quality of life are stress, self-esteem social support and occupation satisfaction and these variables affect the quality of life by 62.7 %.
The study results suggest that stress is the main factor influencing seafarers'' quality of life and therefore a variety of subsequent measures designed to lower stress levels are needed. In addition, comprehensive programs that can increase the levels of seafarers'' self-esteem, social support and job satisfaction need to be implemented.
Key Words: Seafarer, Self-esteem, Stress, Social support, Quality of life