Perceived Stress Among Teachers: the effects of age and background of children taught

Abstract

The reported feelings of stress of 124 primary school teachers were analysed in an attempt to discover causes and effects. Results showed that stress arose from five main areas: a general inability to cope with teaching problems; non co‐operative children; aggressive children; concern for children's learning; and staff relationships. Financial deprivation in the home background was found to be positively and highly significantly related to the incidence of perceived stress among teachers of all but the very youngest children; among those teaching the more deprived, stress increased with the age of children taught. A positive association was found between the amount of stress recorded and illness, as measured by the General Health Questionnaire.