Abstract:
This thesis set out to investigate work stress experienced by crisis translators who may be professionals or ad hoc volunteers performing translation tasks arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. It is motivated by the historical gap in research in Translation Studies on translators’ work stress in general and crisis translators’ stress in particular. crisis translation (CT) has emerged relatively recently as an interdisciplinary field of research and practice in reference to translation conducted in crises in response to multilingual crisis communication. In this research, “work stress” is defined and informed by the job demands-resources (JD-R) model widely used in occupational stress research whereby job demands are treated as stressors with job resources functioning as support, and their combined effects as
consequences. The initial questionnaire survey conducted in 2018 with 48 professional translators in New Zealand revealed the nature of work stress in their routine work with little
data in CT contexts due to the respondents’ lack of CT experiences. Then the sudden
outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 inadvertently provided this research with a real-life global
crisis setting, in particular as something first and acutely experienced by crisis translators in
China. With this new focus, the main study collected 124 valid responses by crisis translators
based in China and elsewhere, using the validated questionnaire from the initial study,
yielding quantitative data to narrowly identify the factors causing crisis translators’ work
stress. This was followed by interviews with 25 Chinese crisis translators to gain detailed
qualitative data. The findings show that emotional demands, unfamiliarity with the translation
content, and time pressure were the most significant job demands that resulted in physical and psychological symptoms, including anxiety, fatigue, a lack of self-efficacy, and sleep
problems. Peer support, translation tools, feedback, self-efficacy, and coping strategies
emerged as important resources associated with positive outcomes, such as a sense of
accomplishment and satisfaction, up-skilling and continuous learning. The factors supported
by the empirical data provide the basis, albeit as an initial attempt, for a set of best practice
guidelines for CT stakeholders in mitigating work stress when engaging in crisis translation.