Occupational Stress in Secondary School Teachers

Stress at work is a phenomenon known to leave few unaffected. Fortunately, most people have established ways of managing the environmental stressors that they become exposed to on a regular basis. It is important to identify potential stressors for people to be able to develop effective coping strategies. Indisputably, the interaction between employees and their working conditions constitutes a source of numerous potential stressors that affect people (Colligan & Higgins, 2006). Generally, different occupations entail different levels of demands, burdens and responsibilities that may contribute to shaping either motivating or impoverishing working conditions. For instance, the health and working conditions of school teachers has established an area of growing concern over the last decade with increasing levels of job burnout (Chang, 2009; Pas, Bradshaw, & Hershfeldt, 2012), high levels of staff turnover (Atkinson, 2004) as well as lower rates of job satisfaction (Flanagan, & Flanagan, 2002).