The Effects of Principal Support on Special and General Educators' Stress, Job Satisfaction, School Commitment, Health, and Intent to Stay in Teaching

THE PRIMARY PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY WAS TO IDENTIFY SPECIAL AND GENERAL TEACHERS' PERCEPTIONS OF PRINCIPAL SUPPORT. TEACHERS INDICATED THE EXTENT TO WHICH THEY RECEIVED VARIOUS TYPES OF SUPPORT AS WELL AS THE IMPORTANCE OF EACH TYPE OF SUPPORT. WE ALSO INVESTIGATED THE EFFECTS OF PERCEIVED PRINCIPAL SUPPORT ON TEACHER STRESS AND PERSONAL HEALTH, JOB SATISFACTION, SCHOOL COMMITMENT, AND INTENT TO STAY IN TEACHING. QUESTIONNAIRES INCLUDING MEASURES OF SUPPORT, STRESS, JOB SATISFACTION, SCHOOL COMMITMENT, PERSONAL HEALTH, AND INTENT TO STAY WERE RECEIVED FROM 385 SPECIAL AND 313 GENERAL EDUCATION TEACHERS IN VIRGINIA. GENERALLY, RATINGS OF SUPPORT WERE SIMILAR FOR GENERAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATORS. CROSS-VALIDATED REGRESSION RESULTS INDICATE THAT WORK-RELATED VARIABLES ARE BETTER PREDICTORS OF EXTENT OF SUPPORT THAN ARE DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES. FURTHER, SPECIFIC TYPES OF SUPPORT ARE SIGNIFICANT PREDICTORS OF JOB SATISFACTION, SCHOOL COMMITMENT, AND PERSONAL HEALTH.