SELECTED STRESS FACTORS CONCERNING THE TEACHING FACULTY AS THEY RELATE TO STUDENTS AND PARENTS, COLLEAGUES, ADMINISTRATION, FINANCIAL SECURITY, THE JOB, AND THE PROFESSION IN A SELECTED SCHOOL DISTRICT

The purposes of this study were to: (1) identify the stressors that produced stress for the teaching faculty; (2) determine the level of stress produced by the stressors; (3) investigate the relationship between the stressors and selected demographic characteristics; (4) correlate the level of stress and the reported health problems; and (5) correlate the level of stress and the number of days sick leave taken during the school year. The sample for the study consisted of 221 teachers employed in seven elementary schools, one junior high school, and one senior high school in an urban school district in a midwestern state. An instrument entitled the Teacher Stress Inventory was developed to gather data for purposes of the study. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences--analysis of variance and co-variance with repeated measures subprogram ANOVA with a followup Tukey test and the Pearson product moment coefficient of correlation. A .022 level of significance was used. The findings led to the following conclusions: (1) All stressors were present in the school district to some extent. (2) The ranking of the individual stressors by respondents varied according to the selected demographic characteristics of the study. (3) The elementary and senior high faculty rated job stressors as the most stressful whereas the junior high faculty rated central administration stressors as the most stressful. (4) A comparison of the most stressful categories yielded significant differences by grade level taught, sex, tenure status, years taught in present assignment, subject area taught, and highest educational level achieved. (5) No significant differences were found among the categories by age, years teaching experience, and years taught in present district. (6) A relationship was found between the mean score of stress and the frequency of reported health problems. As the level of stress for teachers increased so did the frequency of teacher health problems. (7) No relationship was found between the mean score of stress and the number of days absent due to illness