engleski

Social support and teacher stress

Research has shown that about one out of four teachers considers his or hers job very or extremely stressful (Kyriacou, 2001), so the question arises whether there are protective factors in this type of work. Quality social relations with other people can affect the health of the individual in general and the effectiveness of his coping with stress (Cohen, Underwood, & Gottlieb, 2000). If we take into consideration that network of people who support us protects us from stressful events (Myers, 2005), social support appears as possible protective factor in stressful situations. Social support can be defined as the availability of people we can rely on, and who let us know that they care about us, and that they appreciate and love us (Sarason, Sarason, & Shearin, 1986). Thereby, persons who are more socially integrated and who have better social support have better mechanisms for coping with stress, than persons who have less social connections (Cohen et al., 2000). Taking this into account, the aim of this study was to examine the relationship between social support and teacher stress. The role of four types of social support that include emotional, instrumental, informational and support to self-esteem were examined. It was also considered whether support comes from family of friends. A total of 76 teachers form regular primary schools in the Republic of Croatia were included in the research. Mean age of participants was 43.1 (SD = 11.51) years, and 8/76 (10.5%) were male. For the assessment of teacher stress Sources of Teacher Stress Questionnaire (Boyle, Borg, Falzon, & Baglioni Jr., 1995) was used, which was previously translated and adapted by Mikulandra and Sorić (2004). Total level of teacher stress was used for the analysis, and the results on inappropriate behavior of students, need for professional recognition, and workload subscales. Alpha reliabilities were .91, .75, .85 and .78 for the total level of teacher stress, inappropriate behavior of students, need for professional recognition, and workload, respectively. Social support was measured using Croatian version of Macdonald’s (1998) scale, which was translated and adapted by Ivanov and Penezić (2010). Analysis was carried out on total score, and subscales reflecting whether support comes from family or friends, as well as on different types of support subscales (emotional, instrumental, informational and support to self-esteem). Alpha reliabilities were .96, .92, .96, .90, .80, .92 and .86 for total score, support from family, support from friends, emotional, instrumental, informational and support to self-esteem, respectively. There was no statistically significant correlation between total level of teacher stress and social support, although all correlations were in expected direction. However, lower teacher stress was marginally statistically significantly correlated with stronger social support from family and emotional support. Lower level of stress caused by inappropriate behavior of students was marginally statistically significantly correlated with emotional social support.Lower level of stress caused by need for professional recognition was statistically significantly correlated with higher level of total social support, social support form family, and emotional social support. It also had largest correlations with social support compared to other sources of teacher stress. Stress caused by workload was not correlated with social support. Although there was relationship between social support and teacher stress, correlations were small in magnitude, indicating that teacher stress is complex phenomena that should be studied with multiple variables taken into account. Nevertheless, obtained results indicate that social support teacher have can be important factor in their dealing with stress, especially when it comes to emotional social support, and stress caused by need for professional recognition.

teacher stress ; social support ; types of social support

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