Biomedical subjects

R T Pithers

Publications and source records attributed to R T Pithers.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1998

Scottish and Australian teacher stress and strain: a comparative study.

BACKGROUND: There is a widespread belief that teacher stress is a serious problem with obvious implications for teachers' physical and psychological health status as well as performance. There is much published research about teacher stress, although not about cultural or national group comparisons. AIM: This study examines the occupational stress, strain and personal coping resources of a comparative group of Scottish and Australian vocational teachers. SAMPLE: Three hundred and thirty two Scottish and Australian vocational and further education teachers. METHOD: A standardised test, the Occupational Stress Inventory, was used to gather the data. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Overall it was found that stress and strain similarities between the two national groups far outweighed the differences. For instance, there were no between-group differences in strain levels, which were found to be at 'average' levels for both groups. Nevertheless, for both groups of teachers, role overload appeared to be a strong source of occupational stress.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1995

Symposium on teacher stress. Occupational stress among vocational teachers.

There is a widespread belief that work related stress among teachers is serious, with implications for teachers' health status and performance. The difficulty with interpreting data on teacher stress is that the measuring instruments used are often neither standardised nor sometimes focused on stressors pertinent to the occupational roles of teachers. This study, therefore, uses a recently developed test instrument called the Occupational Stress Inventory (OSI) which concisely measures occupational stress, strain and coping resources. Data were obtained, using the OSI, from a group of vocational teachers and compared to a group of professional non-teachers. Overall the results showed a significantly higher level of teacher stress, although only one of 10 stress and strain measures contributed to this effect. The implications for teachers, in terms of occupational role, are discussed.

Burnout, Professional↗

PubMed1995

Teacher stress research: problems and progress.

There is a reasonably large body of published research evidence available which indicates that teaching is a 'highly' or 'extremely highly' stressful occupation for up to one-third of its professionals. Generalisations such as this one, however, are wrought with problems. These problems, for instance, range from confusion about the definition of stress through to how it is to be measured. They include methodological problems inherent in some of the research used to examine the area of teacher stress and as well include, for example, confusion about the effect of mediating variables in the production of stress and strain. This paper examines some of the more important pervasive research problems in current research on teacher stress and makes some suggestions for research progress.

Burnout, Professional↗