Quantitative and Qualitative studies have been widely used in isolation to estimate several associations in developing countries, but little is known about combining both methods in a given study and ascertains validity.
The objective of the following study was to accurately measure the constructs and to check for the internal consistency whereas measuring occupational stress among software professionals. We compared contextual stressors developed from the qualitative study with occupational stress index (OSI) among Information Technology/Information Technology Enabled Service (IT/ITES) professionals in India.
We employed mixed methods sampling strategy for selecting the IT/ITES professionals for the study. The first stage involved a qualitative study followed by a cross-sectional study among 1071 workers in the IT and ITES sector in Bengaluru.
There were two types of stress domains used in the questionnaire. First, contextual stress domains, which were constructed based on the results of the qualitative study. Second, we used OSI for computer workers.