Sources of Stress and Dissatisfaction in Experienced High School Teachers

Abstract

High school teachers (A = 291) were surveyed to identify sources of stress and dissatisfaction that may induce teachers to leave teaching. Data on four sets of independent variables (perceived role, school climate, coping resources, and specific work problems) were entered into a canonical correlational analysis to predict a multidimensional construct of teacher stress encompassing job satisfaction, negative well-being, absences, and intention to leave teaching. Three significant canonical variates were extracted in the canonical correlation procedure, with the independent variables accounting for a total of 86% of the variance in the dependent sets. Certain commonly cited work problems, such as inadequate salary and low status, were found to be important in predicting job stress, but another often-cited problem, pupil misbehavior, was not found to be a factor. The results further suggested that the role teachers perceived for themselves and the school climate, particularly the relationship with administrators, may be extremely important in predicting job stress. Unexpectedly, teachers' coping resources were found to be unrelated to job satisfaction or physical stress but were related to intention to leave teaching. Implications of the results for future research are discussed.