Stress and Mental Health as Predictors of Lecturers’ Job Performance in Delta State Tertiary Institutions

This study investigates the influence of stress and mental health in predicting the job performance of lecturers in tertiary institutions in Delta State, Nigeria. In recent times, the increase in workload, administrative pressures, and lack of institutional support has intensified the stress experienced by lecturers, potentially undermining their psychological well-being and professional effectiveness. Adopting a correlational research design, this paper aims to determine the direction, strength, and relationships among the variables. The population comprised 3,089 lecturers across six tertiary institutions, and a stratified random sample of 306 participants was selected. Standardized instruments were used for data collection: the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), and a Job Performance Scale. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation, and multiple regression. The results indicated that stress correlated negatively with both mental health (r = –0.57, p < 0.01) and job performance (r = –0.44, p < 0.01), while mental health correlated positively with job performance (r = 0.54, p < 0.01). Regression analysis further revealed that stress, mental health, and coping strategies jointly explained 48% of the variance in job performance (R² = 0.48, F (3,302) = 93.00, p < 0.001). Among the predictors, mental health emerged as the strongest positive determinant of job performance (β = 0.42, p < 0.001), whereas stress exerted a significant negative influence (β = –0.24, p <0.001). The study concludes that promoting lecturers’ health and reducing stress is essential to improving productivity and recommends institutional intervention, such as counseling services and management programmes, to enhance lecturers’ performance. The findings underscore the importance of institutional mental health support and stress reduction programmes to enhance lecturers’ productivity.