Stress in Physical Education Teachers: A Systematic Review of Sources, Consequences, and Moderators of Stress

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The purpose of this systematic review was to identify sources of stress, consequences of chronic stress and moderators of stress in physical education teachers and to formulate implications for future research and teacher education. Methods: The initial search identified 2483 publications, including 47 that met the inclusion criteria. Results: The most important sources of stress in physical education teachers were the curriculum, inadequate facilities/equipment, the low status of PE and students´ discipline problems. Regarding the consequences of chronic stress, the majority of studies assessed burnout and reported low to moderate levels of burnout in general. However, of the studies that reported percentages, 20–25% of physical education teachers indicated high levels of burnout. Conclusions: Regarding the relationship between sources of stress and consequences of chronic stress in physical education teachers, future studies should (a) take into account the whole stress process (b) use more adequate measures for stress and (c) address potential moderators of stress. In terms of practical implications, PE teachers should receive an adequate pre- and in-service training that aims at being aware of the main sources of stress in PE teachers and building up adequate coping strategies. In addition, PE teacher education should consider interventions to prevent health consequences of stress such as voice disorders.

KEYWORDS:

• Teaching
• stress
• physical education

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Lisa Frey for her contribution in terms of data analysis to this article. We would like to thank Matthew Watson for proof reading the manuscript as native speaker.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Notes

¹ With sources, the authors refer to person-environment transactions in teachers that were assessed regarding their intensity or frequency.

² Induction program as part of teaching license requirement in Israel.

³ Second phase of the teacher education in Germany, takes place at school for 18 months.

⁴ Reported results are PE specific, data were requested from the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research [01JA1622].