Assessing Work Stress Through Life Experiences:A Systematic Literature Review of Qualitative Approaches

Abstract

Abstract—Occupational stress is a high-consequence construct, yet assessment practices still rely heavily on standardized instruments that produce snapshots of stress levels over a period of time. This approach is useful for comparison and estimation but is limited in explaining how workers interpret work events, relate them to prior experiences, assess available resources, and adjust their responses over time. Building on Lazarus and Folkman's Transactional Model of Stress, this study examines how an interview-based qualitative approach can explore occupational stress through lived experience. A systematic literature review was conducted using PRISMA 2020 on the 2016–2026 Scopus dataset. From 774 initial recordings, 773 unique recordings were screened, and 151 qualitative candidates were identified; after eligibility verification, 47 studies were included. The synthesis revealed six themes: stress as an accumulated experience; primary appraisals shaped by experience and commitment; secondary appraisals tied to institutional resources and trust; the body and domestic sphere as sites of stress; meaning and identity as drivers of tension; and reappraisal as a temporal process. Based on this synthesis, the Life-Experience Work Stress Assessment (LEWSA) framework was retained and refined as a four-layer in-depth interview architecture. This study's contribution is to offer a qualitative approach that does not replace quantitative measures but complements them by assessing how stress is experienced, interpreted, and managed within the context of workers' lives.

Keywords—job stress; transactional model of stress; life experiences; in-depth interviews; systematic literature review; PRISMA