Work Stress of Young Lecturers in Beijing, China: An In-depth Analysis Based on Grounded Theory

Abstract

With the deepening of the reform of the personnel system in higher education, the problem of occupational stress among young teachers in colleges and universities has become increasingly prominent. Existing studies mostly rely on quantitative methods, and the complex internal mechanism of stress formation is not sufficiently explored. This study takes young teachers in Beijing, China universities as the research object, adopts grounded theory, and conducts semi-structured in-depth interviews with 12 interviewees. Through three-level coding, three core categories of "individual characteristics - organizational system - environmental interaction" are extracted to construct a dynamic generation model of occupational stress. The study reveals that the three interact through "high personal requirements - organizational system constraints - generalized social expectations" to form a "stress spiral", individual characteristics regulate stress perception, organizational system defects are the key hub, and environmental factors indirectly amplify stress. The model structure has engaged in dialogue and verification with classic stress models outside China, and at the same time has deepened the analysis of the stress generation mechanism adapted to the local context. Based on this, a three-dimensional "targeted-collaborative" intervention path is proposed, which provides empirical evidence for universities to formulate precise teacher support policies and injects a localized perspective into occupational stress theory.