Sources and symptoms of stress among a sample of Jamaican secondary school teachers

ABSTRACT

This exporatory investigation examined the sources and symptoms of stress experienced by secondary school teachers drawn from a random sample of New Secondary and Traditional High schools throughout Jamaica. The instruments used were a 23-item measure of Teachers' Experience of stress Symptoms (TESS) which comprised the criterion measure: and the independent variable consisted of groupings which emerged from a factor analysis of 60 items tapping sources of stress, as well as selected biographical and demographic variables. The data obtained from 470 respondents (162 males and 308 females) were subjected to the following procedures 1. ORTHOGONAL FACTOR ANALYSES with varimax rotation grouped the 60 source of stress items into five factors identified as 'Interaction among Staff Members', 'Students' Indiscipline', 'Job Pressures', 'Inadequate Rewards', and 'Poor Working Conditions'. All five factors were significantly related to the criterion measure (TESS). STEPWISE MULTIPLE REGRESSION analysis for the total sample yielded 'Poor Working Conditions', 'Students' Indiscipline', and 'Job Pressures' in that order, as the best predictors of the criterion (TESS). For the male sub-sample, 'Poor Working Conditions', and 'Job Pressures' surfaced as the best predictors of the criterion, while 'Interaction among Staff Members' was the only variable making any significant contribution to the criterion for the female sub-sample. ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE revealed that there were no statistically significantly differences emerging for teachers working in girls', boys' or co-educational schools on the experience of stress symptoms. Teachers at coeducational schools did however experience significantly greater stress from 'Interaction among Staff Members' and 'Inadequate Rewards'. CORRELATION ANALYSIS revealed that the teachers' sex, age, academic speciality and the grade levels of students taught were significantly related to the criterion (TESS). Teachers at New Secondary schools experienced significantly more stress than Traditional High school teachers from certain sources viz 'Interaction among Staff Members', 'Students' Indiscipline', 'Inadequate Rewards', and 'Poor Working Conditions'. Corporate area teachers also found certain sources, viz 'Interaction among Staff Members', 'Students' Indiscipline', 'Inadequate Rewards' and 'Poor Working Conditions', more stressful than their non-Corporate Area counterparts. Female teachers not only experienced significantly more symptoms of stress (p<.001) but also found 'Students' Indiscipline', 'Job Pressures', 'Inadequate Rewards' and 'Poor Working Conditions' to be more stressful than male teachers.(AU)