Investigating Maltese primary school teachers’ work-related stress

Abstract

The teaching profession has been identified as stressful in a large number of studies. Stress can be derived from internal and external sources. Various sources of stress have been identified. This study applies the sequential mixed methods approach. The online survey identified the sources that contribute to teachers’ stress and their relationship to various independent demographic variables (i.e. age, gender, years of teaching experience, current year of teaching and year group with most teaching experience). Data about the stress symptoms are also analysed by teachers' age, gender, years of teaching experience and the current year of teaching. Survey data was collected through a Likert scale. The qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted following the survey. These assessed the primary source of stress for the participants. Interviews identified teachers’ knowledge about support systems for teachers, and what the senior leadership team can do to help teachers reduce stress. Results from this study revealed that the highest sources of stress are increased in workload, changes in the curriculum and too much work to do. The most frequent consequences of stress are exhaustion, nervousness, feeling tense and frustrated. This study revealed that participants are not well informed about the support system that is in place. Participants acknowledged that there is much more that can be done by the senior leadership team to help teachers reduce stress.