Perceived stress, coping and symptoms of distress among primary school teachers

Abstract

The current study examined the relationship between perceived work stress, coping strategies, anxiety, depression and somatic symptoms among primary school teachers. In addition, it also studied if demographic variables such as gender, teaching experience and the roles in the school were correlated with perceived work stress, coping strategies, anxiety, depression and somatic symptoms. Similarly, the same demographic variables were used to see if there were any differences in the type of teacher stressors identified by the teacher participants across the three demographic groups.<br><br>This study found that perceived work stress was positively correlated to both adaptive and maladaptive coping as well as anxiety, depression and somatic symptoms. The beginning teachers, with less than 5 years of teaching experience reported significantly higher use of maladaptive coping as compared to their experienced counterparts, with 5 to 10 years of teaching experience. Teacher participants with leadership roles reported significantly higher level of stress due to the teaching stressor “Insufficient support from colleagues” and higher severity in depression symptoms as compared to those without leadership roles in the school.<br><br>Such findings will have implications on the customisation of the mental wellbeing programmes for school teachers. Limitations will be discussed and future research will be recommended.