STRESS AMONG HIGHER SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS WITH REFERENCE TO CORPORATE SCHOOLS IN HYDERABAD

Transcription

1 STRESS AMONG HIGHER SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS WITH REFERENCE TO CORPORATE SCHOOLS IN HYDERABAD Dr. K. Sunanda Associate Professor, Shadan Institute of Management Studies for Girls (India) ABSTRACT Modern life is full of stress. As organizations have become more complex, the potential and amount of stress is increasing. Urbanization, industrialization, and the increase in scales of Operations are increasing stress. These are the inevitable consequences of socio-economic complexity. People feel stressed as they can no longer have complete control over what happens in their life. There is no escape from stress in modern life. Stress is the general term applied to the pressures people feel in life. The presence of stress at work is almost inevitable in many jobs. However, individual differences account for a wide range of reactions to stress; a task viewed as challenging by one person may produce high levels of anxiety in another. When pressure begins to build up, It can cause adverse strain on a person s emotions, thought processes, and physical condition. When stress becomes excessive, employees develop various symptoms of stress that can harm their job performance, health and even threaten their ability to cope with the environment. The aim of the study was to determine the level of stress experienced by Higher secondary school teachers in Hyderabad. The dimensions of stress studied included physical stress, mental stress, emotional stress and social stress. The data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, t-test, Pearson s correlation and Multiple Regression. The results showed that the secondary school teachers had a high level of stress and the difference in the level of stress reported by male and female teachers was significant with male teachers reporting higher level of stress than female teachers. Each dimension of stress contributed significantly to the overall level of stress experienced by the secondary school teachers. Interventions, such as stress management, can be carried out to reduce stress. Key Words: Higher Secondary School Teachers, Stress, Stress Interventions I INTRODUCTION Although the phenomena of stress is existing since ancient times, conscious attempts to study the concept systematically have begun in the later half of the twentieth century. In the seventeenth century, stress denoted hardship, straits, adversity of affiction. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it meant force, pressure, strain or string effort. It came in from social sciences, engineering and physics. Social and biological sciences have found it necessary and useful to investigate the effects of stress and psychological tensions on the physical and mental well being of people concern about the impact of stress on people (Hans Selye) 45 P a g e

2 1.1 What is stress? Stress is an individual s response to a disturbing factor in the environment and the consequence of such reaction. Stress obviously involves interaction of the person and the environment. The physical or psychological demands from the enviro9nment that cause stress are called stressors. Stress can manifest itself in both a positive and a negative way. Stress is said to be positive when the situation offers an opportunity for one to gain something. Eustress is the term used to describe positive stress. Definition of Stress Stephen P.Robbins defines stress as Stress is a dynamic condition in which an individual is confronted with an opportunity, constraint or demand related to what he or she desires and for which the outcome is perceived to be both uncertain and important, Ivancevich and Matteson defines stress as the interaction of the individual with the environment. Behr and Newman define job stress as a condition arising from the interaction of people and their jobs and characterized by changes within people that force them to deviate from their normal functioning. Fred Luthans defined stress as an adaptive response to an external situation that results in physical, psychological and/or behavioral deviations for organizational participants. Hans Selye defined stress as the non-specific response of the body to any demands made upon it. 1.2 The background of Stress Concern about the impact of stress on people has its roots in medicine and specifically in the pioneering work of Hans Selye, the recognized father of stress. In his search for a new sex hormone, he serendipitously discovered that tissue damage is a nonspecific response to virtually all noxious stimuli. He called this phenomenon the general adaptation syndrome (GAS) and about a decade later he introduced the term stress in his writings. The GAS has three stages: alarm, resistance and exhaustion. Alarm stage: - The first is the stage of alarm and occurs as the first sign of stress. It results in physiological changes in the body as a warning and preparation against stress. During this initial stage, muscles become tense, blood pressure rises, pupils dilate and there is increase in hormone flow such as adrenaline from endocrine. Resistance stage: - The second is the stage of resistance. In this stage the body s energy tend to resist the stress so that the physiological and psychological equilibrium can be maintained. If this resistance is successful then the stress will disappear. However if the stress is of a high degree and continues long enough, then the body s capacity of adaptation becomes exhausted. Exhaustion stage: - In this third stage of exhaustion. the person is unable to cope with the stress and the individual experiences physical and mental pressures which result in such illnesses as continuous headaches, ulcers and high blood pressure. It is this last stage which presents the greatest threat to the individual s well-being. 46 P a g e

3 1.3 Burnout Burnout is a troublesome outcome of stress. It is desirable to examine burnout in detail. Burnout is a state of mind resulting from prolonged exposure to intense emotional stress. It manifests through emotional exhaustion a combination of negative attitudes. Burnout occurs due to prolonged exposure to stress and that too in phases. The three key phases of burnout are emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and feeling a lack of personal accomplishment. Emotional exhaustion is due to the combination of personal, job and organizational stressors. People who expect a lot from themselves and organizations in which they work tend to create more internal stress which leads to emotional exhaustion. Similarly, emotional exhaustion is fuelled by having too much work to do, by the role conflict and by the type of interpersonal interactions encountered at work. Frequent intense facts to face interactions that are emotionally charged are associated with higher levels of emotional exhaustion. Overtime, emotional exhaustion leads to depersonalization, which is the state of psychologically withdrawing from one s job. This finally results in a feeling of being unappreciated, ineffective, or inadequate. The additive effect of these three phases is a host a negative attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. II REVIEW OF LITERATURE Blase, J. (1986). A Qualitative Analysis of Sources of teacher Stress: Consequences for Performance. Time was a significant factor in several of the stressors and Blase emphasizes the importance this plays in all aspects of teacher stress. His study also found a strong correlation between Occupational stress and negative feelings in teachers. Clearly, the data suggested that dealing with Occupational stress results in considerable anger toward others. Borg, M. (1990). Occupational stress in British educational settings: A review, reports that up to one third of teachers perceive their occupation as highly stressful. In the United States, thirty-nine percent of teachers leave the profession in the first five years. Teachers who perceive a lack of support and poor treatment will more likely view their work as highly stressful, and high levels of stress are reported to be one of the main reasons for teachers leaving the profession in the early years of their career. Dunham, J. (1992) who defined stress as a process of behavioral, emotional, mental, and physical reactions caused by prolonged, increasing or new pressures that are Occupational Stress Among School teachers significantly greater than the availability of "coping" strategies. Farber, B. A. (1984). Teacher burnout: Assumptions, myths, and issues. Argued that "teachers are not burned out, they are worn out. Instead of burning out from overwork, they turn off to the job and stop attempting to succeed in situations that appear hopeless" Kyriacou, C., & Sutcliffe, J. (1978). A model of teacher stress. who presented a model of teacher stress which conceptualized teacher stress as "a response syndrome mediated by an appraisal of threat to the teacher's self-esteem or well-being and by coping mechanisms activated to reduce the perceived threat" 47 P a g e

4 Skaalvik, E. M., & Skaalvik, S. (2007). Dimensions of teacher selfefficacy and relations with strain factors: Perceived collective teacher efficacy and teacher burnout. school-based stress management programs may provide a method for reducing teacher burnout and improving school and classroom environments. III THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK This study was based on person-environment (PE) Fit theory of stress. This the most widely accepted framework for conducting research on job-stress (Brewer & McMahan, 2004; Edwards, Caplan & Harrison, 1998; Edwards& Cooper, 1990; Kokkinos, 2007; Spielberger & Vagg, 1999). PE Fit theory of stress asserts that the interaction between an individual and his or her environment determines whether or not a situation is stressful for that person. It assumes that human behaviour is a function of the person and the environment, and that a person s vocational satisfaction, stability and achievement depend on the congruence or fit between the person s personality and the environment in which the person works (Herr, Cramer, & Niles, 2004; Kokkinos, 2007; Salami, 2006). The individual s attributes are interests, transferable skills, career motives and values, personality preferences, career orientations, self-concept and sense of self-efficacy. The work environment includes individual s expectations and perceptions regarding workload, control over one s work,tangible and intrinsic rewards of work, the relationship and sense of community among co-workers, perceptions of fairness in the worksite and the role of personal and organizational values (Herr, Cramer, & Niles, 2004). Stress results if the fit between an individual and environment is incompatible. Similarly, lack of fit between the demands placed on individuals and their abilities to meet those demands can result in stress. Though there are evidences that stress occurs as a result of complex interaction between individual characteristics and issues in the work environment, research has not systematically considered the role of person variables, such as gender, age, experience, income etc., in this direction especially studying the manifestation of stress among higher secondary school teachers in the area of the present study IV OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 1. To know the stress levels among higher secondary school teachers in the corporate schools of Hyderabad. 2. To determine stress coping strategies/methods for teachers and consider their implications on practice. V RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 5.1 Data collection Collection of data is both through Primary and secondary sources. Primary sources of data collection are through structured questionnaire. Secondary sources are information from the school records. 5.2 Sample Sample consisted of higher secondary school teachers of select 20 corporate schools in Hyderabad. 5.3 Sampling Procedure 48 P a g e

5 A cross-sectional survey was carried out among Male and Female teachers. 20 teachers were randomly selected using systematic random sampling technique from each school 5.4 Questionnaire design A Teachers stress questionnaire (TSQ) was used. It included the Dimensions of Physical stress, mental stress, Emotional stress and Social stress. 5.5 Reliability and Validity Cronbach alpha was used to test the reliability of the questionnaire. The Cronbach alpha value of the questionnaire (TSQ) is r=.72. For the sub scales i.e., Physical stress(phs) r =.75, Mental stress (MTS) r =.65,Emotional stress(ems) r =.73 and for Social stress(sos) r =.64.So, it is considered as a good scale. VI RESEARCH METHODOLOGY A total of 400 questionnaires (TSQ) were administered representing about 96% response rate, were used for analysis. The response columns of the TSQ were allocated scores as follows: Always (AL) = 4, occasionally (OC) = 3, rarely (RA) = 2 and never (NE) = 1. The criterion mean for the study was obtained by adding all the scores assigned to the response options assigned to the response options and dividing the sum by the number of the response options as follows / 4 = 10/4 = 2.5 A criterion mean of 2.50 and above was adjudged high level of stress. Pearson s correlation coefficient r was employed to establish the relationship that exit among the dimensions of stress of the teachers. Pearson s correlation coefficient r was employed to establish the relationship among the dimensions of stress of the teachers. In order to describe the relationship between the variables, Wilson s (1989) interpretation of the value of r was adopted. In the interpretation, a value of was considered very low relationship; low ; moderate ; high ; very high, and 1.0 perfect relationship. A plus (+) or (-) sign indicates whether the correlation is positive or negative. t- Test statistic was used to know whether any significant difference existed between male and female teachers in the level of stress experienced. Multiple Regressions was employed to check the stress prediction strength of each dimension of teacher s stress at 0.01 and 0.05 levels of significance respectively. Data analyses was done with Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 20.0 for Window VII DATA INTERPRETATION Table 1: Mean, standard deviation and t-test results of stress level between male and female higher secondary school teachers Variables Gender X S.D N x S.D t-cal df t-crit PHS Male P a g e

6 Female MTS Male Female EMS Male Female SOS Male Female Stress Male Female * Significant at p < Interpretions Table 1 shows that the teachers mean score for each of the dimensions of stress index namely: PHS ( xw= 3.30), MTS ( xw= 2.92), EMS ( xw= 3.55) and SOS ( xw= 3.14) is above the criterion mean ( xw= 2.50) set for the study. The table also shows that the respondents overall stress index ( xw= 3.12) is above the criterion mean set for the study, indicating a high level of stress. The standard deviations show that the respondents responses do not vary so widely. When male and female teachers are compared, it is observed that male teachers have higher stress scores in all the dimensions of stress and overall (male xw= 3.21, female xw= 3.13) than female teachers and the differences are significant except in PHS (t = < 1.960, p < 0.05) and MTS (t = <1960, p < 0.05). Table 2: Mean, standard deviation and t-test results of stress level in Higher secondary school teachers among different different age groups Variables Age N x S.D t-cal df t-crit PHS 20-30yrs 31-40yrs P a g e

7 > 40yrs MTS 20-30yrs 31-40yrs > 40yrs EMS 20-30yrs yrs > 40yrs SOS 20-30yrs yrs > 40yrs Stress 20-30yrs yrs > 40yrs Variables Experience N x S.D t-cal Df t-crit PHS < 5yrs yrs > 10yrs MTS <5yrs yrs > 10yrs EMS <5yrs yrs > 10yrs SOS <5yrs yrs > 10yrs Stress <5yrs Interpretations 5-10yrs > 10yrs Table 2 shows that the standard deviations of the respondents responses do not vary so widely. When different age groups are compared, it is observed that 20-30yrs teachers have higher stress scores in all the dimensions of stress and overall (20-30yrs xw= 3.21, 31-40yrs xw= 3.09,>40yrs xw= 3.12) stress and the differences are also significant.table 51 P a g e

8 3: Mean, standard deviation and t-test results of stress level in higher secondary school teachers among different income groups Variables Income N x S.D t-cal df t-crit PHS 10-20K K 31-40K MTS 10-20K K 31-40K EMS 10-20K K 31-40K SOS 10-20K K 31-40K Stress 10-20K K 31-40K Interpretation Table 3 shows that the standard deviations of the respondents responses do not vary so widely. between different income groups are compared, it is observed that 10-20K income teachers have higher stress scores in all the dimensions of stress and overall (10-20K xw= 3.29, 21-30yrs xw= 3.24, 31-40K xw= 3.13) stress and the differences are also significant. Table 4: Mean, standard deviation and t-test results of stress level in higher secondary school teachers with different years of experience 7.4 Interpretation 52 P a g e

9 Table 4 shows that the standard deviations of the respondents responses do not vary so widely between employees with different years of experience. Stress scores in all the dimensions of stress are higher for 5-10yrs of experiences teachers and overall (>5yrs xw= 3.04, 5-10yrs xw=3.11, > 10yrs xw= 3.16) stress and the differences are also significant. Table 5. Correlation Matrix among Variables of stress Variables PHS MTS EMS SOS PHS 1 MTS 0.343** 1 EMS 0.301** 0.414** 1 SOS 0.238** 0.339** 0.416** 1 ** Significant at p < Interpretations Table 5 shows that the teachers PHS relates to MTS (r =.345), EMS (r = 0.301), and SOS (r = 0.248) and MTS relates to EMS (r = 0.414); SOS (r = 0.339) and SOS relates to EMS (r =.416). The above results suggest that positive relationship exists among the various components of stress, that is, increase in one leads to increase in another. Table 6. Regression analysis between Stress and Dimension of stress Variables R R2 beta Stress 95% CI F-cal df F-crit PHS o ** MTS ** EMS ** SOS ** **Significant at p < Interpretations Table 6 shows that the R-value for PHS is 0.595, while the F-cal. = > 3.840, p < The Fcal is greater than the critical F-value of at 0.05 alphas. This is an indication that there is a significant relationship between PHS and stress of the secondary school teachers. The value of regression weight β = 97(95% CI = ), which accounts for 41.4% of the variance, indicating a positive relationship and a moderate predictive value of stress of the teachers. The table also shows that the R-value for MTS is 0.323, while the F-cal. = > 3.840, p < Therefore there is a significant relationship between MTS and stress of the teachers. The value of R weight β = (95% CI = ), which tends to account for 10.5% of the variance indicates a positive relationship and very low predictive value of stress of the teachers. The table further shows that the R value for EMS is 0.539, and the F-cal. = > 3.840, p < Therefore there is a significant relationship between EMS and stress of the secondary 53 P a g e

10 school teachers. The value of regression weight β = (95% CI = ) accounting for 39.6% of the variance indicates a positive relationship and a low predictive value of stress of the teachers. Finally the table shows that the R value for SOS is 0.782, and the F-cal. = > 3.840, p < Therefore there is a significant relationship between SOS and stress of the secondary school teachers. The value of regression weight β = (95% CI = ) accounting for42.8% of the variance indicates a positive relationship and a moderate predictive value of stress of the teachers. VIII LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 1. The cross-sectional nature of this study limits the capacity to demonstrate a cause effect relationship between individual and occupational variables and stress level. 2. The study did not take into account all the characteristics of the working environment that could have introduced a source of potential bias (especially working hours, subjects taught and working position). 3. Higher secondary school teachers generally could have similar responsibilities. This means differences in job demands and job control are more a reflection of individual perception of the work situation than in studies where persons from different occupations are included. Therefore, the results cannot be generalized to other populations. IX SUGGESTIONS The findings of this study provided information regarding the level of stress among higher secondary school teachers in corporate schools in Hyderabad. A number of the results of the present study are important; especially to implement measures to change conditions or behavior at work could help improve the conditions of teachers. Better information for teachers could improve teacher behavior, which could have an impact on the occurrence of problems that could exacerbate stress among teachers. Adopting new teaching strategies duty and levels of extra-curricular involvement could provide a better regulatory framework within which teachers would be able to find solutions to some of their problems. Other interventions, such as stress management, can be carried out to reduce stress in the work environment. X CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION Teacher stress has become an area of interest among researchers and practitioners in most places. Although this study has indicated that stress levels among Higher secondary teachers in corporate schools in Hyderabad is high. The high level of stress experienced by the Higher secondary school teachers is capable of increasing risks of health problems, lead to reduced productivity and impact significantly on the teachers and the school and students as a whole. 54 P a g e

11 Stress management programmes should be initiated in Higher secondary schools to assist teachers manage their stress. This is because management of stress is an aspect of health promotion in the workplace, especially the school. It is therefore suggested that additional research, perhaps incorporating physiological techniques to obtain measurements of stress levels, needs to be conducted so that the teachers stress symptoms can be better understood. REFERENCES [ 1.] Armstrong, V., Barnes S., Sutherland, R., Curran, S., Mills, S., & Thompson, I. (2005). Collaborative researchmethodology for investigating teaching and learning: The use of interactive whiteboard technology.educational Review, 57(4), [ 2.] Brewer, E.W., & McMahan, J. (2004). Job stress and burnout among industrial and technical teacher educators.journal of Vocational Education Research, 28(2), [ 3.] Cooper, C., & Davidson, M. (1987). Sources of stress at work and their relations to stressors in nonworkingenvironments. In R. Kalimo, M. El-Batawi, and C. Cooper (Eds.), Psychosocial factors at theirrelations to health (pp ). Geneva: World Health Organization. [ 4.] Edwards, J.R., & Cooper, C.L. (1990). The person-environmental fit approach to stress: Recurring problems andsome suggested solutions. Journal of Organizational Behaviour, 11, [ 5.] Gupta, N. (1981). Some sources and remedies of work stress among teachers. Retrieved April 18, 2012, fromhttp:// [ 6.] Ivancevich, J., Matteson, M., Freedman, S. & Philips, J. (1990), Worksite stress management interventions. American Psychologist, 45, [ 7.] Kyriacou, C. (1987). Teacher stress and burnout: An international review. Educational Research, 29(2), [ 8.] Kyriacou, C. (2001). Teacher stress: Directions for future research. Educational Review, 53(1), [ 9.] Lazarus, R., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal and coping. New York: Springer Publications. [ 10.] Luthans, F. (1994). Organizational behaviour. Boston: McGraw Hill Publishing. [ 11.] Margolis, B., Kroes, W., & Quinn, R. (1974). Job stress: An unlisted occupational hazard. Journal ofoccupational Medicine, 1(16), [ 12.] Philips, S., Sen, D., & McNamee, R. (2007). Prevalence and causes of self-reported work-related stress in headteachers. Occupational Medicine, 57, [ 13.] Pithers, R.T. (1995). Teacher stress research: Problems and progress. British Journal of Educational Psychology65(4), [ 14.] Spielberger, C.D., & Vagg, P.R. (1999). Job stress survey: Professional manual. Odessa, Fl: PsychologicalAssessment Resources. 55 P a g e

12 [ 15.] Sutherland, V., & Cooper, C.L. (1990). Understanding stress: A psychological perspective for healthprofessionals. London: Chapman and Hall Publishing. 56 P a g e