Stress and Coping Mechanisms of Teachers

Abstract

The study focused on the analysis of the possible sources of stress perceived by teachers through the concepts of social structure, social status, social role, social interaction and social norms. It also functioned to define and explain the effectiveness of coping mechanisms used by teachers. The subjects were all grade school teachers of Mater Carmeli School. The technique used by the researcher falls under the probability sampling, wherein every member of the group had been given the equal chance to be chosen. Since there were only 30 teachers that comprised the total population in the grade school department, all of them had been able to answer the survey-questionnaire. The study used both the qualitative and quantitative methods in conducting the research to find out the prevalent stressors perceived by teachers. These methods were also used to identify the coping mechanisms employed by the teachers. Frequency distribution and weighted mean scores were used to better analyze the study. In terms of sources of stress, there were 40 items that were broken down into five factors: teacher/pupil interaction, management/ structure of the school, appraisal of teachers, lack of status/promotion, and ambiguity of the teacher's role. Among these factors, only the teacher/ pupil interaction falls under stressful situation. The remaining four falls under rarely stressed. In terms of coping mechanisms, out of 24 items, only 3 falls under seldom used while 21 have been extensively used by the respondents. Based on these results, majority of them didn’t avoid any problems that cause stress. Instead, they look for effective and efficient means on how to solve those stressors. Despite the fact that students are great contributors of stress, teachers in Mater Carmeli School were still able to manage and carry out their role as an educator towards them.