Stress and coping in Gauteng teachers.

Date
1998
Authors
Fong Chong, , Melanie.
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Abstract
Despite the increasing concerns regarding the levels of stress expenenced by teachers, and the potential resultant effects of this stress, relatively little is known about the potential effects of coping strategies and perceived social support in coping with teacher stressors. This study aimed to investigate whether both general and specific ways of coping (namely, problem focused, emotion-focused and escape-avoidance coping) heve the potential to moderate the relationship between stressors and strain experienced by individuals within the teaching profession. Furthermore, attempts were made to establish which of these types of coping strategies are most effective for coping with the typical stressors faced by teaching professionals. Similarty, this study investigated whether perceived social support has the potential to moderate the stressor-strain relationships experienced by teachers, and examined which types of social support (namely. perceived social support from famify, friends, supervisors, or colleagues) have the potential to effectively moderate this relationship. The data were collected using questionnaires, which were distributed amongst seventeen elementary schools within the Gauteng region, The sample for this study consisted of 188 English-speaking,elementary school teachers, employed on a full-time basis. Moderated multiple linear regressions were carried out in order to investigate whether coping strategies and social support have the potential to moderate the stressor-strain relationships, and analyses of variance were used to determine which of the three ways of coping (that is, problem-focused, emotion-focused, or escape-avoidance coping) has the potential to be the most effective for coping with teacher stressors. Generally, the use of coping strategies was found to Significantly moderate the investigated stressor-strain relationships of teachers, while the potential of specific ways of coping to moderate particular stressor-strain relationships appears to be specific to the situation. Similar results were found with regards to perceived social support. Problem-focused coping strategies were generally found to be the most effective method for coping with a range of teacher stressors. but its efficacy was also found to be situation-dependent.
Description
I hereby certify that this dissertation is my own unaided work. It has been submitted exclusively to the University of the Witwatersrand in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Industrial Psychology).
Keywords
Teachers -- South Africa -- Gauteng -- Job stress., Adjustment (Psychology)--South Africa.
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