Mental workload and job satisfaction: A comparative study amongst social workers, social educators and primary school teachers

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Social Work is considered a profession with high risk of suffering work stress due to the mental and emotional workload involved. But although stress has been compared numerous times in social work with professions such as nursing, and to a lesser extent with teaching, mental workload has not yet been taken into account. The purpose of this study was to compare the subjective degree of mental workload and job satisfaction in three groups of professional women: social workers, social educators, and primary school teachers, all from the public sphere. METHODS Participants were 88 women (22 social workers, 18 social educators and 48 primary school teachers), who completed a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Cuestionario de Carga Mental (CarMen-Q) and the Job Satisfaction Scale (JSS). RESULTS A higher score was observed in the CarMen-Q among social workers compared to primary teachers, especially regarding the perception of cognitive demands, temporary demands and performance demands. In addition, both social workers and social educators showed a lower score on the job satisfaction scale in contrast to the primary teachers. CONCLUSIONS It is necessary to have a deeper knowledge of the mental workload and job satisfaction in social work insofar as this can have an impact on a better design of the jobs.