Deep sea fishermen and their families

The crew of one trawler was compared with factory workers matched for age, education and responsibility on the job. The methods used were: 1) Cornell Medical Health Questionnaire, 2) Cattell's 16 Personality Factors Test, 3) physical examination, 4) medical psychiatric interview, 5) sociological interview. Later the families were interviewed and Lowman's Inventory of Family Feeling was administered. The two groups were compared as to marital status, number of children, physical and mental health, problems in the family, personality factors, psychiatric symptoms in the children, occupation of fathers and grandfathers, family constellation in childhood, assets and drawbacks of the job. The results did not show any clear difference in physical and mental health, except for some symptoms of physical strain in the group of trawler-men. Isolation from the family and limited sex-life seem to be major drawbacks for the trawler-men. Mean age is considerably lower among the trawler-men because the hard work forces them to change to other jobs after the age of 40-50. The trawler-men are more introverted than the factory men. The spouses and children of the trawler-men have more psychiatric symptoms, probably related to the emotional strain caused by the fishermen's work. The role distribution is different in the families of the trawler-men owing to the double function of the wife, who often has to take over the traditional functions of the husband. The results of this study are very preliminary, but in the authors' view demonstrate clearly the need for more systematic research of the health and environmental conditions of fishermen and other seamen and their families.