An investigation of the sources and levels of stress of teachers of challenging needs students in Newfoundland and Labrador

McCarthy, Tony Matthew (1993) An investigation of the sources and levels of stress of teachers of challenging needs students in Newfoundland and Labrador. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the sources and levels of stress experienced by teachers of students with challenging needs in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador and to investigate the relationship between sources and levels of stress experienced by teachers in challenging needs classrooms. The Wilson Stress Profile for Teachers and a General Information Questionnaire were mailed to 302 challenging needs teachers. One hundred and eighty-four (60.93%) completed questionnaires were returned. The following statistics were used to analyze the responses of the population studied: (1) a description of the demographic characteristics of the responding teachers; (2) a representation of the mean score obtained on factors influencing stress and stress score means; and (3) a correlation of personal and professional factors with stress scores. The results indicated that challenging needs teachers find their jobs moderately stressful. When compared with other teachers, challenging needs teachers find their jobs more stressful than do other specialists, and as stressful as regular classroom teachers. Of the nine categories of stress, challenging needs teachers find Employee/Administrator relations least stressful and Physical Symptoms of Stress to be the highest. A total of 11 stressors were found to significantly correlate with overall stress for challenging needs teachers. This study also showed that low prospects of promotion or transfer for challenging needs teachers correlate highly with increased stress. Teachers rated the administrative support they received to be high. As administrative support increased, stress levels for the challenging needs teachers decreased. An analysis of the results of this study suggested that alternatives are available to teachers and school administrators to reduce stress experienced by challenging needs teachers.

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