Life-style and university type as “predisposers” to stress among university academics in Anambra State, Nigeria

Objectives of the study were to investigate lecturers’ life-style and university ownership variables, and stress experiences accompanying the variables. Participants (110) were sampled using incidental and cluster techniques: Federal University (46), State University (42), and Private University (22), Professors (12), Associate Professors (9), Senior Lecturers (30), Lecturer 1 (24), Lecturer 2 (14), and Assistant Lecturers (21) of cross-sectional and factorial designs, with multiple analysis of variance (MANOVA) statistics. Data were collected using valid/reliable life-style, and stress experience inventories of 5-points Likert measurements respectively. Findings were: Life-style significantly predisposed lecturers to stress; life-style significantly predisposed lecturers to stress arising from relationship with colleagues, research stress, and teaching task stress; combination of life-style and university type significantly contributed to lecturers’ stress experiences; finally, variations in the stress were caused by work environment stressors. Recommendations were for lecturers to adopt healthy life-style, while university work environment be improved.