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Levels of teacher stress are a growing concern across the globe, with both short- and long-term effects of stress upon teachers being researched. This Australian study employed the Transactional Stress Model (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) as a theoretical framework to guide an inquiry into teacher stress. An online survey was used to access a large sample of secondary teachers (N = 535) in government, Catholic, and independent schools throughout the state of Queensland. This paper reports findings related to two research questions: sources of stress and short-term coping strategies. Key sources of stress were identified as lack of time and paperwork. The most common coping strategies reported were talking to friends and family and exercise. Findings have implications for teacher practice and school administrators.
Keywords: Teacher stress, Secondary school, Transactional stress model, Coping.
Introduction
For many years, stress has been recognised as a concern among professionals employed in human service occupations (Chan, Chen, & Chong, 2010; Lazarus & Launier, 1978; Onwuegbuzie, Jiao, & Collins, 2007; Travers & Cooper, 1993; Yang, Ge, Hu, Chi, & Wang, 2009), and is of increasing concern for those in the teaching profession (Earp, 2010; Rentner, Kober, & Frizzell, 2016). Teaching in today's schools involves both high pressure and serious responsibilities; factors often beyond the control of the individual (Sorenson, 2007). Teachers experience frequent exhaustion (Shernoff, Mehta, Atkins, Totf, & Spencer, 2011), serious health conditions (Sorenson, 2007), and are expected to have shorter life expectancy due to occupational stress in China (Yang et al., 2009).
Hans Seyle is recognised as one of the foremost researchers into human stress. He proposed the general adaptation syndrome (GAS) as a means of conceptualising stress and considered stress to be the body's response to threatening situations (Selye, 1956). As interest in stress has increased, more definitions have evolved. For example, Lazarus (1966) offered an interpretation of stress as an imbalance between perceived demands and resources, Anderson (1978) viewed stress as troublesome situations or thoughts, Wiley (2000) presented the notion that stress was a "biological phenomena that is experienced by all persons" (p. 80), whereas Onwuegbuzie et al. (2007) considered stress to be an "umbrella term for a number of other concepts such as anxiety, conflict, frustration, and so forth" (p. 212). Since the 1960s,...