Correlates of stress and coping strategies of Taiwanese special education teachers handling children with mental retardation

The research focuses on the experience of stress, its correlates and the coping mechanisms of Taiwanese special education teachers handling children with mental retardation. The subjects for the study are 243 Taiwanese SPED teachers from the Kaohsiung area of Taiwan. A self-constructed survey questionnaire was administered to the respondents and the coping mechanisms they use in managing their experiences of stress. Furthermore, variables such as a) student behavior, b) employee/administrator behavior, c) teacher-teacher relationship, d) parent-teacher relationship, e) self-management, f) conflict resolution management and g) stress management were also investigated alongside selected demographic variables such as a) gender, b) age, c) years of service, d) highest educational attainment and e) month salary. Using the descriptive-correlational research method, the said variables were studied to determine the relationship among them. The results show that Taiwanese SPED teachers have low levels of symptomatic stress. The result also show that the demographic variables do not have any significant relationship with the level of symptomatic stress. It was observed that despite the low level of stress experienced by the respondents, the stressors are the following accordingly: a) employee/administrator behavior and teacher-teacher relationship (relationship with colleagues). The stressor considered least as a source of stress was the relationship of the teacher with their students. Student behaviors were not considered as a source of stress among the sampled Taiwanese SPED teachers. It can be concluded that although stress is a universal phenomenon among teachers, it is experienced in various ways depending on the culture and various circumstances involved in the lives of the teachers. Furthermore, the sources of stress may vary accordingly depending on the sample being studied. It is recommended that the present study be replicated and carried out with a larger sample group. Cross-cultural comparisons can also be undertaken in comparing Taiwanese SPED teachers having children with mental retardation with their Filipino SPED teacher counterparts