Mental Well-Being and Anxiety Among Ready-Made Garment Workers in Gazipur, Bangladesh: A Gender-Based Cross-Sectional Study

The ready-made garment (RMG) industry is a major contributor to Bangladesh’s economy,employing millions of workers under often stressful conditions. Despite its economicimportance, limited research has examined the mental well-being and anxiety of this workforce,particularly regarding gender differences. This cross-sectional study investigated the relationshipbetween mental well-being and anxiety among male and female garment workers in Gazipur,Bangladesh. A total of 180 participants (90 males, 90 females), aged 18–30 years (M = 24), wererecruited through purposive sampling. The Bangla-adapted Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale and Anxiety Scale were administered, and descriptive and inferential analyses wereconducted. Results indicated that male workers reported higher mean mental well-being scores(M = 53.51, SD = 8.3) than female workers (M = 49.91, SD = 10.7), which is statisticallysignificant {t(178) = 2.50, p = 0.013}. Mean anxiety scores were 44.08 (SD = 13.08) for malesand 41.57 (SD = 15.4) for females, with no significant gender difference { t(178) = 1.18, p =0.240}. Overall, anxiety and mental well-being were negatively correlated (r = −0.31, p < 0.01),suggesting that higher mental well-being is associated with lower anxiety.