Teaching is a stressful occupation. Teacher stress can be described as the experiences by
teachers of psychological distress such as anxiety, depression and nervousness and languishing,
resulting from aspects of their workload and school setting. Stress manifests itself in various
ways including psychological, emotional, and social changes. Teachers demonstrate individual
discrepancies in their responses to stressors. South Africa is as a multicultural environment with
previously segregated school settings based on race. Research revealed that it is possible that the
functionality of schools, usually related to school setting, has implications for the psychological
well-being of teachers.
As comparative study between group White teacher-Black teacher data are limited, this
study analysed aspects of psychological well-being to show that race, associated with school
setting, can be pervasive determinate of positive mental health. The current study, which is a
secondary analysis of the Sympathetic Activity and Ambulatory Blood Pressure in Africans
(SABPA) 2008-2009 data, aimed at explaining the similarities and differences by identifying
aspects most likely to influence psychological well-being between a White teacher group and a
Black teacher group in the North West Province in South Africa.
One research question was formulated to reach the purpose of the research and is: How
does the psychological well-being of Black and White teachers in different school settings in the
North West Province in the South African context compare? A sample consisting of White (208)
and Black (200) teachers completed the Mental Health Continuum – Short Form (MHC-SF; Keyes, 2002) to measure positive mental health: the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9;
Kroenke, Spitzer, & Williams, 2001) to measure depression, the Fortitude Questionnaire (FORQ:
Pretorius, 1998) to measure social support, and the Teacher Stress Inventory (TSI, Boyle, Borg,
Falzon, & Baglioni Jr., 1995) during the SABPA study. Data from various self-reported
psychological questionnaires completed by the two teacher groups were included and analysed
by means of bivariate correlations of the two teacher groups, t-test comparisons, cross
tabulations of categories of positive mental health as well as of depression, and multiple
regression.
Significant associations were found for the following: teacher stress related to general
resources (TSI), teacher stress related to teaching and classroom management (TSI), positive
self-appraisal, social support from family, social support from friends and others (FORQ),
emotional well-being, and psychological well-being (MHC), for both the White and Black
teacher groups. According to regression analysis, in the White teacher group, 11.9% of total
variance in teacher stress was accounted for by depression while positive metal health explained
7% of teacher stress. For the Black teacher group, only 2.4% of the total variance of teacher
stress was explained by depression and 0.1% by positive mental health. The conclusion is that all
teachers experience stress and depression, but according to these results, the effect of stress on
well-being seems to be higher among the White group. Although the Black teachers report
higher levels of stress, they flourish.
In closing, from this comparative study, it was recommended that data between resource
availability and school setting pertaining to White-Black teacher groups matched by
psychological well-being need to be obtained. Much needed consideration should be given to the
development of interventions that explore aspects of psychological well-being of teachers in different school settings. Furthermore, cultural background in the school setting that contributes
towards psychological well-being should be considered and applied to guide interventions in the
North West Province in South Africa. / MSc (Research Psychology)|cNorth-West University, Potchefstroom Campus|d2014
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nwu/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/11178 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Kok, Illasha |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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