Job Stress among School Teachers: A Comparative Study with respect to Locality, Age, and Gender
Keywords:
Job Stress, School Teachers, Locality, Age, Gender, Occupational StressAbstract
The effect of Job Stress on the School Teachers with respect to locality, age and gender was studied in the present study. The objectives of the study were to determine the overall level of job stress and its major dimensions and to determine whether there are significant differences between teachers in rural and urban localities, different age groups and gender. A descriptive survey research design in the quantitative paradigm was used. The population of the study was comprised of 240 school teachers of different schools in Samastipur District in Bihar. The Occupational Stress Index developed by Srivastava and Singh (1984) was used to measure job stress and a personal information sheet to obtain the demographical data. The results showed that teachers' job stress is a multidimensional phenomenon. The most significant sources of occupational stress were: role overload, strenuous working conditions, role conflict and unprofitability. Some of the other dimensions were intrinsic impoverishment, under-participation and role ambiguity, group pressure, political pressure, poor peer relations, powerlessness, low status and responsibility for persons. The study also revealed that there was a statistically significant difference in job stress score of rural teachers compared to urban teachers where the latter had a comparatively higher score. There was also a significant difference between the different age groups, where the teachers in the age group 51 years and above had high mean scores of job stress. The differences between gender were statistically significant and female teachers reported higher job stress than male teachers. Results show that the factors affecting the occupational stress of school teachers are both organizational and demographic factors. The study suggests that workload should be balanced, roles should be clearly defined, decisions should be made through participation, leadership should be supportive, professional recognition should be given, and interpersonal relations should be healthy, as well as implementing stress-management programmes with special emphasis on urban, senior and female teachers.....
Downloads
References
[1] Ali, M. K., & Kumar, A. (2022). Study of occupational stress between government school teachers and private school teachers. International Journal of Indian Psychology, 10(2), 1312–1317.
[2] Antoniou, A.-S., Polychroni, F., & Vlachakis, A.-N. (2006). Gender and age differences in occupational stress and professional burnout between primary and high-school teachers in Greece. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 21(7), 682–690. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940610690213
[3] Bakker, A. B., & Demerouti, E. (2007). The Job Demands–Resources model: State of the art. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 22(3), 309–328. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940710733115
[4] Bian, H., & Jiang, H. (2026). Gender and teaching experience differences in occupational stress and psychological symptoms among Chinese junior high school teachers. Frontiers in Psychology, 16, 1684651. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1684651
[5] Bodiwala, V., & Chaithani, K. (2020). A study of occupational stress among private and government school teachers. International Journal of Indian Psychology, 8(4), 477–480.
[6] Dhull, K. (2018). Occupational stress among secondary school teachers in relation to gender and types of school. International Journal of Research in Social Sciences, 8(4), 853–861.
[7] Fontana, D., & Abouserie, R. (1993). Stress levels, gender and personality factors in teachers. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 63(2), 261–270. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8279.1993.tb01056.x
[8] Kalyva, E. (2013). Stress in Greek primary schoolteachers working under conditions of financial crisis. Europe’s Journal of Psychology, 9(1), 104–112. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v9i1.488
[9] Kaur, M., & Kumar, R. (2019). Determinants of occupational stress among urban Indian school teachers. Research in Education, 105(1), 3–17. https://doi.org/10.1177/0034523717745341
[10] Klassen, R. M., & Chiu, M. M. (2010). Effects on teachers’ self-efficacy and job satisfaction: Teacher gender, years of experience, and job stress. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102(3), 741–756. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019237
[11] Kyriacou, C. (2001). Teacher stress: Directions for future research. Educational Review, 53(1), 27–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131910120033628
[12] Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. Springer.
[13] Manju, N. D. (2015). Job stress of secondary school teachers in relation to their gender, type of school and length of experience. Journal of Teacher Education and Research, 10(1), 29–36. https://doi.org/10.5958/2454-1664.2015.00004.X
[14] Maslach, C., Schaufeli, W. B., & Leiter, M. P. (2001). Job burnout. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 397–422. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397
[15] Montgomery, C., & Rupp, A. A. (2005). A meta-analysis for exploring the diverse causes and effects of stress in teachers. Canadian Journal of Education, 28(3), 458–486. https://doi.org/10.2307/4126479
[16] Skaalvik, E. M., & Skaalvik, S. (2016). Teacher stress and teacher self-efficacy as predictors of engagement, emotional exhaustion, and motivation to leave the teaching profession. Creative Education, 7, 1785–1799. https://doi.org/10.4236/ce.2016.713182.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
You are free to:
- Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
- Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
Terms:
- Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
- No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
