Job stress and satisfaction of the primary school teachers and the teachers of children with mental retardation in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

This study determines symptoms of stress, stressors, stress level, teachers\u27 behavioral style with stress levels, and job satisfaction of primary school teachers (PS teachers) and teachers of children with mental retardation (MR teachers) in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It also determines the relationship between their stress levels and job satisfaction.The participants were 32 PS and 32 MR teachers. Of the 64 teachers, there were five males and 59 females. Their ages ranged from 20 to 59 with a mean age of 31.65. Most of them (64.1 percent) were single, and 35.9 percent of them were married. All PS teachers (100 percent) were qualified for a teaching career. However, only 50 percent of MR teachers were considered as qualified.The Stress Questionnaire For Teacher (Travers & Cooper, 1996) was used to determine symptoms of stress, stressors, stress level, and teachers\u27 behavioral style. The Job Satisfaction Questionnaire of Miguel (1981) as adapted by Glacio (1985) was used to measure the level of Job Satisfaction.Stresses experienced by both groups of teachers were frequently manifested in cognitive symptoms. The PS teachers experienced high pressure with the three major clusters of stressors: Class size, Appraisal of teachers, and Changes. The stressful clusters of stressors of the MR teachers are Management and structure of the school, Working conditions, and Pupil and teacher interaction. Significant differences in mean score between the PS and MR teachers were found in six out of nine clusters of stressors (Pupil and teacher interaction, Relationship at work, Class sizes, Management and structure of school, changes taking place within Education, and Teacher\u27s role). The teachers in this study fall predominantly into Type A behavior (60.9 percent), and 39.1 percent of them are Type B. Type A individual teachers report significantly more pressure than their Type B peers. The Stress Level of these teachers is considerably stressful (M = 317.05, SD = 37.30) and they reported neither satisfaction nor dissatisfaction in their jobs (92.2 percent). There is a significant negative correlation between stress level and job satisfaction of the teachers in both groups.Based on the findings, some recommendations are made. Teachers should be helped to cope with stress effectively and successfully in order to do their job better and to experience higher levels of job satisfaction, the major sources of their well-being