Occupational stress among teachers is a painful, prevalent and costly
phenomenon, one which impacts on individuals, families, schools and
wider society. A growing body of evidence suggests that individuals'
susceptibility to occupational stress is not determined exclusively by
environmental or personality factors, but by the cognitive and
behavioural transactions between the individual and potentially stressful
events. Two major factors which contribute to individual stress are a
person's appraisal of events as threatening or demanding, and the
strategies they use in coping with those events.
The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between
experience, stress levels and coping patterns in a group of primary school
teachers. Two groups of teachers were surveyed, 'Starters' who were in
their first year of teaching and 'Stayers' who had at least 10 years of
teaching experience. Stayers were divided, on the basis of their responses,
into Low-stress, Moderate-stress and High-stress groups. The aspects of
coping which were explored are:
1. The range of coping strategies used by teachers in each group,
2. The frequency of use of those coping strategies for each group, and
3. The coping styles preferred by teachers in each group.
The results of this study show no direct connexion between stress
level and any of the demographic variables (sex, age, religion, piety,
teaching experience, full-time teaching, part-time teaching and time away
from teaching). Nor are significant differences found between the coping
patterns of more or less experienced and more or less stress teachers.
A pattern is suggested by correlational analysis, wherein
inexperienced teachers (Starters) and highly-stressed experienced
teachers (High-stress Stayers) show the same preference for coping styles.
It is hypothesized that this similarity of preference relates to role of
control in reducing stress, and that these groups are examples of different
stages of adaptation to teaching. Implications for the use of these
preferences in detecting teacher stress, and for the inclusion of coping
strategies in teacher training are discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/218747 |
| Date | January 1996 |
| Creators | Allingham, Pauline Kay, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Teacher Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Pauline Kay Allingham |
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