Level of Work Related Stress among Teachers in Elementary Schools
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3889/oamjms.2015.076Keywords:
workplace, stress, teachers, demography, job characteristicsAbstract
BACKGROUND: Teaching is considered a highly stressful occupation, with work-related stress levels among teachers being among the highest compared to other professions. Unfortunately there are very few studies regarding the levels of work-related stress among teachers in the Republic of Macedonia.
AIM: To identify the level of self-perceived work-related stress among teachers in elementary schools and its relationship to gender, age, position in the workplace, the level of education and working experience.
MATERIAL AND METHODS: We performed a descriptive-analytical model of a cross-sectional study that involved 300 teachers employed in nine elementary schools. Evaluation of examined subjects included completion of a specially designed questionnaire.
RESULTS: We found that the majority of interviewed teachers perceive their work-related stress as moderate. The level of work-related stress was significantly high related to the gender, age, position in workplace, as well as working experience (p < 0.01), while it was significant related to level of education (p < 0.05). Significantly greater number of lower-grade teachers perceives the workplace as extremely stressful as compared to the upper-grade teachers (18.5% vs. 5.45%), while the same is true for female respondents as compared to the male ones (15.38% vs. 3.8%). In addition, our results show that teachers with university education significantly more often associate their workplace with stronger stress than their colleagues with high education (13.48% vs. 9.4%). We also found that there is no significant difference of stress levels between new and more experienced teachers.
CONCLUSION: Our findings confirm that the majority of interviewed teachers perceived their work-related stress as high or very high. In terms of the relationship between the level of teachers’ stress and certain demographic and job characteristics, according to our results, the level of work-related stress has shown significantly high relation to gender, age, levels of grades taught as well as working experience, and significant relation to the level of education.Downloads
Metrics
Plum Analytics Artifact Widget Block
References
Hepburn A, Brown S. Teacher stress and management of accountability. Human Relations. 2001; 54(6):691-715. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726701546001
Kyriacou C. Teacher stress and burnout: An international review. Educational Research. 1987; 29:145-152. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0013188870290207
Cooper CL. Life at the Chalkface – Identifying and measuring teacher stress.British Journal of Educational Psychology 1995; 65(1):69–71. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8279.1995.tb01131.x
Travers CJ, Cooper CL. Teachers Under Pressure: Stress in the teaching profession. London: Routledge, 1996.
Kyriacou C, Sutcliffe J. A model of teacher stress. Educational Studies. 1978; 4:1-6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0305569780040101
Kyriacou C, Sutcliffe J. Teacher stress: Prevalence, sources, and symptoms. British Journal of Educational Psychology. 1978; 48:159-167. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8279.1978.tb02381.x
Mrozek K. Teacher Stress Presentation. 2005. Retrieved March 3, 2010, available from: www.cedu.niu.edu/~shumow/itt/Teacher%20stress.pdf
Pithers RT. Teacher stress research: Problems and progress. British Journal of Educational Psychology. 1995; 65:387-392. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8279.1995.tb01160.x
Kyriacou C. Coping actions and occupational stress among school teachers. Research in Education. 1980; 24:57-61. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/003452378002400105
Cox T, Mackay CJ, Cox S, Watts C, Brockley T. Stress and well-being in school teachers. Psychological response to occupational stress. Conference conducted at the meeting of the Ergonomics Society, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, 1978. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-15953-6_7
Chana KB, Laib G, Koa YC, Boeyc KW. Work stress among six professional groups: the Singapore experience. Social Science & Medicine. 2000; 50:1415-1432. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-9536(99)00397-4
Bachkirova T. Teacher stress and personal values: An exploratory study. School Psychology International. 2005; 26(3):340-352. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0143034305055978
Eres F, Atanasovska T. Occupational Stress of Teachers: A Comparative Study between Turkey and Macedonia, International Journal of Humanities and Social Science. 2011; 1(7):59-65.
Germany: Teachers is most stressful profession,†Education International, 01 February 2013. available at: http://www.ei-ie.org/en/news/news_details/2435 (assessed on 16.04.2015).
Aftab M, Khatoon T. Demographic Differences and Occupational Stress of Secondary School Teachers. European Scientific Journal. 2012; 8(5):159-175.
Gold Y. Batchelor P. Signs of burnout are evident for practice teachers during the teacher training period. Education. 2001; 108(4):546-555.
Anhorn R. The profession that eats its young. The Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin. 2008;15-26.
Smethem L, Adey K. Some effects of statutory induction on the professional development of newly qualified teachers: a comparative study of pre- and post-induction experiences. Journal of Education for Teaching. 2005; 31(3):187-200. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02607470500169014
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0