Influencing Factors and Stress Coping Mechanisms in Agricultural Communities of Occidental Mindoro, Philippines

ABSTRACT : This paper aims to provide an insightregarding stress-related experiences of agricultural workers and some key differences in terms of the roles and nature of farm work. Moreover, this paper  investigatedhow working environment and experiences of farmers influence stress.A cross sectional study design was utilized to assess the stress-related experiences and coping mechanism of farmers through survey questionnaire. Stressors on farming were determined using Edinburgh Farming Stress Inventory instrument. To assess the different ways in which farmers respond to stress, Brief COPE was used. Other variables were measured using an instrument containing self-report items related to the other exposure variables. These variables were age, sex, civil status, farm size, hour of work and nature of work.This paper revealed that majority of the farming stress is contributed by the government policies and regulations and geographic isolation. The coping mechanism usually adopted by the farmers is active coping like problem solving and religion.
Keywords: agricultural activity, Brief COPE, farming, health, sickness, stressors