An analysis of junior high/middle school teachers' perception of factors affecting teacher job stress and principals' perception of ways to alleviate or manage teacher job stress

The purpose of the study was to identify factors which caused teacher job stress as perceived by junior high/ middle school teachers. An additional purpose of the study was to determine what strategies junior high/middle school principals used to alleviate or manage teacher job stress.A teacher questionnaire was developed for use in the study involving teachers. Three-hundred and eight teachers responded to a fifty-four item questionnaire. The data obtained were analyzed for the combined responses and for discrepancies between respondent sub-groups, i.e., tenure, non-tenure, male, female.An open-ended questionnaire was developed for use in the study involving junior high/middle school principals. Sixty-four principals responded to the questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of a ranked list of forty-seven job stressors. The principals were asked to review the list of job stressors and to indicate ways they alleviated or managed teacher job stress.The two most stressful teacher job stressors, with a rank of ore and two of forty-seven job stressors, were caused by students. The remaining eight of the ten top causal factors of teacher job stress were: (1) uncooperative parents, (2) maintaining self-control when angry, (3) too much paperwork, (4) lack of public faith and support, (5) misunderstanding or misinterpretation resulting from ineffective communication, (6) verbal abuse by students, (7) too much time required on activities unrelated to actual teaching, and (8) conflict of concurrent demands of home and job responsibilities.Of the job stressors ranked eleven to twenty of the forty-seven job stressors, four were caused by management, three job stressors were caused by students, two job stressors were caused by colleagues, and one was caused by job task requirements.Specific activities, procedures, or policies frequently reported by principals respondents for alleviating or managing teacher job stress were reported. In general, the activities were: (1) staff cooperation, (2) inservice on stress and time management, (3) good student discipline, (4) good administrative organization and planning, (5) principal visibility, interaction, and accessibility, (6) elimination of some tasks at school, (7) good principal and staff communication, (8) principal and staff team effort, (9) parent support, and (19) an identification and understanding of causal factors of teacher job stress.The review of related literature placed more emphasis than did principals on the need of each individual teacher to develop a personalized approach in acquiring stress coping skills. Some examples of individual coping skills included: C1) good health and exercise, (2) regularity in life, (3) good attitude, (4) changing life style if current life style was not conducive to stress, (5) gain experience and work towards mastery of tasks, (6) good person qualities, (7) assign priorities and establish goals, (8) being cooperative with others, (9) establishing good social interactions, and (10) develop stress buffers and stress relievers.Thesis (D. Ed.