Examination of psychological symptom levels and working conditions of seafarers and land crew working in the maritime sector

Most of the world maritime trade is done by maritime line. Maritime is a sector which includes both marine and land operations. Working at sea is considered to be one of the most difficult professions to do physically and psychologically due to the its conditions. Domestic and abroad studies show that factors such as low sleep quality, environmental conditions, stressful working environment, frequent visits to the port, and long working hours cause fatigue in seafarers. When maritime accidents are examined, it is observed that majority of them result from human faults caused especially by fatigue, lack of attention and stress. This shows the importance of the human factor in the maritime sector. In this study, by using Psychological Symptom Check List (SCL 90-R) of the seafarers working in such tough conditions as well as the land crew working in maritime sector, the psychological symptom levels and SCL 90-R sub-dimension scale scores have been examined. Moreover, psychological symptom levels of the seafarers were investigated in terms of various demographic variables. The sampling of this study consists of 292 seafarers and 124 land crew, contacted between 9 February 2019 and 25 April 2019. The statistical analyses of this study were carried out on male 269 seafarers and 73 land crew who have a service time of 1 year or more at sea and on land. The analysis of the data obtained from the results of the study was done by using t test and one way anova test in SPSS 22.0 packaged software. As a result of the study, it was determined that seafarers' SCL 90-R general symptom index scores and their sub-dimension scores of somatization, depression, phobic anxiety were higher than land crew working in maritime sector. Significant differences were observed in SCL 90-R sub-dimension scores and general symptom index scores of seafarers based on the annual time spent on board. Obsessive compulsive disorder, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, paranoid thought, psychoticism, and general symptom index scores of the seafarers who were on board for 7-8 months were found to be higher than those who spent more than 10 months on board. Interpersonal sensitivity, depression, paranoid thought, psychoticism, and general symptom index scores of the seafarers who were on board for 7-8 months were found in a statistically significant level to be higher than those who spent 6 months and less on board. A significant difference was determined in obsessive compulsive scores of seafarers based on their marital status variable. Obsessive compulsive scores of unmarried seafarers were found to be higher than married ones. When anger and hostility sub-dimension scores and obsessive compulsive thinking sub-dimension scores of the seafarers are evaluated according to child ownership variable, the scores of the seafarers not having a child are higher than those who have children in both sub-dimensions. No significant difference was found in the psychological symptom levels of the seafarers based on the status on board, total maritime service time and age variables.