Levels of Reported Stressors and Strains Amongst Schoolteachers: some UK data

Abstract

The paper reports the results of an empirical study of psychological stress and strain amongst schoolteachers. A number of strain variables were sampled: various aspects of job satisfaction and felt pressure; self‐esteem assessed against the perceived qualities of other teachers; clinically validated measures of depression, anxiety, somaticism and obsessionality; and a measure of everyday cognitive failures. The stress variables included ratings of perceived demand for a number of job factors relevant to the teaching environment. The perceived supportiveness of various factors was also measured to give an overall idea of how stressful the environment is. In addition, teachers were asked to rank in order of importance factors which they considered would most decrease job pressure. The levels of reported stressors and strains presented and the pattern of correlations between the variables, supports the view that teaching is a very satisfying but somewhat high pressure occupation. Despite the high levels of perceived pressure well over 50#pc of the teachers said they would prefer more responsibility (if salary was not a consideration). Moreover, although the reported self‐esteem of the sample was high, a large proportion of the sample obtained high depression scores. The level of job demand, and its relationship to supports, was associated with various mental health, satisfaction and pressure measures.