The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
This study did not require formal ethics approval.
Data sharing is not applicable to this article.
The authors received no specific funding for this work.
Stress at the workplace is unavoidable, but it is needed to be coped for ensuring emotional and physical health. The study explores the strategies for coping with stress among primary schoolteachers with varied demographic characteristics i.e. gender, locale, length of job experience, and academic and professional qualification. The sample of 315 (104 male, 211 female) primary school teachers was selected conveniently from the primary schools of tehsil Sargodha. Data was collected through a self-developed scale of stress coping strategy for primary teachers and analyzed through percentages, frequency, t-test and ANOVA. Male primary teachers use more strategies to cope with the stress as compared to the female. Teachers of various levels of academic qualifications used more strategies to cope with the stress, while no variation was found on the bases of locality, professional qualifications and experience were found. School Education Department is recommended to arrange guidance and counseling programs for teachers to use better stress coping strategies.
Life in the workplace environment is mostly associated with high levels of stress, which hampers the social and emotional well-being of the employees, causing burnout (Candeias et al., 2021). Besides personal emotional and cognitive losses, it decreases the ability to think clearly and decide and ultimately leads to decreased efficiency of the system (Hansen & Sullivan, 2003). As explained by Obi and Obi (2007) that stress is a feature of the standard human livelihood framework. This is an essential part of mastering new skills and patterns. Okeke & Dlamini (2013) observed stress as "the inadequacy of one's mental and physical coping with environmental disorders." Occupational stress is now one of the costly issues of occupational health. Many workplace stress studies have revealed a variety of administrative influences that are effective in producing stress (Sutherland & Cooper, 2000).
Professional and financial liabilities of the person cannot be waved off, but they need effective stress management skills to keep a balance between liabilities, personal health and happiness for being productive. Factors causing stress are different in varied age groups, types and levels of job, targets, available resources and cultural norms of the region. There is no universal solution for all organizations. When people are stressed, they take different ways to deal with it because they cannot keep up with the constant pressure. This is termed coping, which is nothing but a way of coping.
Teaching is one of the stressful careers, involving several fundamental deviations occurring in the system of formal education on a daily basis. These deviations are probable to intensify the level of stress in teachers. Working for a teacher becomes more complicated when there is insufficient accommodation, increased syllabus and congested teaching space (Shukla, 2008). Challenges and pressures in educational institutions arise due to increasing demands from students and administration on a daily basis, which leads a teacher towards stressful conditions (Clipa & Boghean, 2015).
Teachers are considered to have a fundamental role in attaining overall progress and school goals. There are many problematic situations for primary teachers in Pakistan where only a small fraction of GPD is allocated for education (Farooq, 2018). Several factors contribute to mounting stress for them. They receive pay but are not sufficient to fight with the day-to-day dearness and family needs. They face many stresses due to administrative structure, scarce resources, working environment, community demands, and their accountability based on students’ academic performance in terms of grades. It is necessary to find out how they cope with all such stresses. Hence, it is sensed to study the strategies of primary school teachers in coping with stress.
Objectives
It was planned to explore strategies used by primary school teachers to cope with the stress. To carry out the study, the following research questions were probed.
i. What types of stress coping techniques are being used by teachers of primary schools?
ii. What types of stress coping techniques are used by male and female primary school teachers?
iii. What types of stress coping techniques are used by the urban and rural primary school
teachers?
iv. Were there any differences in coping techniques on the basis of experiences and academic and professional qualification?
In this exploratory research data collection technique was a survey. Because of limited time and finance, the study was conducted only in District Sargodha. The population was all male and female teachers teaching in government Primary Schools within district Sargodha.
Among the six, Tehsil Sargodha was selected purposively because the number of Primary schools is larger as compared to any other Tehsil in the district. At the first stage of sampling, 50% of the population of 550 government primary schools, and 250 Government Primary schools, including 125 boys and 125 girls schools, were selected randomly from the list of schools taken from the website of the Punjab School Education Department. In the second stage, from these selected Primary schools, one male teacher and two female teachers were selected conveniently on the basis of their availability on the day of data collection.
After a review of the literature and a study of available research instruments, stress coping strategies scale with a five-point Likert scale was developed with eleven factors. It has 39 items, in which 5 statements were related to ‘Growth and Positive Reinterpretation’, 2 statements were related to each factor, i.e ‘Religion’, ‘Humor’, ‘Mental Disengagement’, ‘Focus on Venting Emotions’, and ‘Seeking instrumental reasoning social support for’. Three statements were related to each factor ‘emotional reasoning seeking social support’, ‘Planning’, ‘Acceptance’, ‘Denial’ and ‘Restraint Coping’. The scale was made bilingual (Urdu and English languages). The expert opinion was taken from five PhD faculty members from the Department of Education, the University of Sargodha, to check the content as well as face validity and difficulty level and sentence structure in both English and Urdu. After incorporating the expert suggestions, the instrument was pilot tested on 100 primary school teachers other than the sample. The reliability coefficient Cronbach Alpha was 0.79 which was appropriate. Data were collected from selected schools through a personal visit. The collected data was analyzed through percentages, frequency and t-tests.
In a formal school environment, Teachers are also taken as the stressor for the students and colleagues, but they are influenced by the organization of modern education and the stressors of daily activities (Hepburn & Brown, 2001). The most important thing is that teachers ought to use appropriate strategies to cope with stress, specific to their personalities. Everyone responds differently to stressors. Researching and practicing alternate coping strategies is important to help each individual. This allows teachers to be more objective, motivated and transparent about their abilities (Bachkirova, 2005).
Coping means tolerating negative events or realities or adjusting to such situations along with trying to maintain a self-positive image and equilibrium in emotions. Coping is with respect to stressful changes in life.
Coping is a struggle to prevent or diminish a threat or harm in reducing the distress that is often associated with the complications. The way a teacher handles stress in the school functioning can influence the results of stress and its biological responses to psychological well-being (Griffith, Steptoe, & Cropley, 1999). Sources for coping activities may be material, social, psychological and physical factors that are helpful for teachers to overcome stressors at work and achieve valuable results with students (Easthope, & Easthope, 2007).
There are several stress coping strategies because of the situation and the way the stressors play their role. These strategies may be categorized as proactive, active coping, anticipatory coping, escaping, denying the problem or feelings, withdrawal, self-regulation, religious support and emotional exhaustion (Blum, Brow, & Silver, 2012). Coping with a level of stress is much needed for teachers because their stress not only interferes with the attainment of their goals of education but also hampers the better quality of personal and professional life (Austin, Shah, Muncer, 2005). Literature supports some work-focused stress coping strategies like role clarity, organization of time and allocation, exploration for more information and assistance with direct work and cooperative work strategies. Role clarity refers to the clarifications to employees required from their supervisors when faced with uncertain job assignments. Another way to deal with stress is managing time effectively with knowledge through learning to plan better to do more skillful work.
Teachers face both role-based and task-based stress. Role-based stress arises due to a lack of ample ways and means to perform well, which indicates teachers' expectations of their role are reconciled with job responsibilities related to the task. Stress relevant to task mentions the problems linked with the types of particular tasks that teachers have to accomplish during their teaching (Asaloei, Wolomasi, & Werang, 2020) e.g. coping with disruptive students. Stress during the teaching process is mediated by institutional factors related to the expected functions of teachers. Institutional factors creating stress for teachers may be inappropriate time division, overwork, unrealistic goals, and pressure of inspection techniques (Hepburn & Brown, 2001).
General positive strategies adopted by teachers to reduce stress include meditation, movement, entertainment, avoidance, social resources and exercise (Garland, & Gaylord, Fredrickson, 2011). All of these coping strategies that teachers utilize can upset the perspective of the situations and change their stress insights (Griffith, Steptoe, & Cropley, 1999). To struggle in facing stress, two strategies i.e. external or internal strategies to cope with stress, can be used by teachers. External lines of attack likes exercise, seeking transplantation, distraction, and movement. Internal ways, for example, focusing on the slight things in the form of stimulus around him, comprise focus and inertia (Gulwadi, 2006). Though many usual strategies to cope with stress are present, teachers mostly depend on suppression, active planning, experiences, social support, curative and competition.
Social connections and emotional expression with coworkers tend to decrease the influence of stress on job satisfaction, teacher fitness and risk of bodily disease. Teachers communicate with friends and coworkers to receive counseling, express feelings, emotional support, empathy and understand the mental state. Personally and socially active teachers feel less stress in the workplace (Griffith et al., 1999). They further described that proper planning to carry out the usual workload permits teachers to focus on their work and not feeling of stressed. Active planning includes focused hard work, formulating plans, doing actions, and strategies, taking steps and doing what needs to be done to keep students focused rather than stressed (Griffith et al., 1999). Teachers cope with stress by releasing their emotional exhaust some time out of the school in the places like homes, market spaces, tea cafes and prayer places where they are more relaxed and they are listened to by others (Gulwadi, 2006). Withdrawal from the work and social activities is also an observed phenomenon in teachers’ community at their workplaces which leads to isolation, postponing friends and family events and lots of happy moments in schools (Ostovar-Nameghi, & Sheikhahmadi, 2016). Some teachers may have disputes with their colleagues due to the displaced anger effect of the long-term persistent stress. Consequently, procrastination from academic and professional responsibilities leads to low productivity in curricular jobs, a sense of low confidence and powerlessness (Griffith, Steptoe, & Cropley, 1999).
Bhui et al. (2016) found that dynamic management plans and promotion of health behaviors helped instructors in reduction of stress in a job for bodily well-being. In this concern, consultation from relevant organizations, doctors and educational experts is needed (Holeyannavar & Itagi 2009). Administrators of organizations can take programs and initiatives of stress management as an investment to minimize medical expenses for the illness grieved by stress and absenteeism and improve employees’ retention (Grimshaw, 2004).
Montgomery and Rupp (2005) identified two main strategies to cope with stress which are active and passive approaches. The active approach or method was of psychological traits (rational avoidance, self-control and change in attitude). Ways of doing things (attending relaxing exercises, asking for advice and setting boundaries of duty and emotional ways (positive thinking, quiet and calm). On the other side, passive methodology such as being astonishing, fantasizing, resignation and drinking are four-sided dimensions that are characterized by inaction with an adverse incident. Hemmings and Hockley (2002) described stress-facing approaches including relaxation, communication with others, better relationships with the organization and participation in sports etc. Recreation and rest simultaneously reduce stress and improve living standards and have a clear impact on self-care (regular exercise, 08 Hours of daily sleep, maintaining a strict diet, using relaxation as stress-reducing techniques to enhance the quality of life).
There are wide-ranging strategies that might be utilized to manage workplace stress. These include interventions aimed at changing the human relationship of an individual with the association. Broadly there addressed generally comprehensive goals of stress managing tools i.e. deterrence by controlling risks by designing and training workers to decrease the probability of stress employees, responding in an appropriate manner to recover managers' aptitude to meet them and dealing with problems when they occur.
| | | | | | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| My feeling is that I learnt something good from a stressful experience | 81 25.7% | 96 30.5% | 77 24.4.% | 58 18.4% | 3 1.0% | 315 100% | 3.62 | 1.08 |
| I always see positive aspects in a problematic situation. | 91 28.9% | 77 24.4% | 17 5.4% | 111 35.2% | 19 6.0% | 315 100% | 3.35 | 1.3 |
| I avoid all the activities to cope with the stressful situation. | 108 34.3% | 139 44.1% | 29 9.2% | 38 12.1% | 1 0.3% | 315 100% | 4.00 | 0.9 |
| I do what has to be done in stressful situation. | 72 22.9% | 159 50.5% | 66 21.0s% | 18 5.7% | 0 0% | 315 100% | 3.90 | 0.8 |
| I post pond all other activities and fully concentrate on how to cope with the situation. | 156 49.5% | 88 27.9% | 42 13.3% | 26 8.3% | 3 1.0% | 315 100% | 4.17 | 1.01 |
| Total %age of factor | 508 32.% | 559 35.5% | 231 14% | 251 16% | 26 8.0% | 1575 100% | 3.8 | 1.01 |
Table 1 shows the reflection of
the factor "Positive reinforcement and growth," which had 5 items.
Many of the (56.5%) primary school teachers (with
| | | | | | | | | |
| I get advice from my family to cope with stress | 157 49.8% | 117 37.1% | 29 9.2% | 12 3.8% | 0 0.0% | 315 100% | 4.33 | 1.01 |
| I talk to someone about what I feel during stress | 112 35.6% | 161 51.1% | 21 6.7% | 21 6.7% | 0 0.0% | 315 100% | 4.16 | 0.7 |
| I spend more time with my family during stress | 73 23.2% | 186 59.0% | 23 7.3% | 31 9.1% | 2 0.6% | 315 100% | 3.94 | 0.8 |
| Total %age of factor | 342 36.1% | 464 49% | 73 7.7% | 64 6.3% | 2 0.6% | 945 100% | 4.14 | 0.8 |
Table 2 shows the reflection of
factor “Seeking social support for emotional reasoning” which had 3 items. Many
of (86.9%) primary school teachers (with
| | | | | | | | | |
| I do direct action to dispose of the situation | 113 35.9% | 80 25.4% | 26 8.3% | 84 26.7% | 12 3.8% | 315 100% | 3.63 | 1.3 |
| I make some strategy about what to do with the problem. | 108 34.3% | 117 37.1% | 33 10.5% | 52 16.5% | 5 1.6% | 315 100% | 3.65 | 1.2 |
| I think about how I could best handle the problematic situation. | 123 39.0% | 156 49.5% | 10 3.2% | 26 8.3% | 0 0% | 315 100% | 3.86 | 1.1 |
| Total %age of each response | 344 41% | 353 45% | 69 4% | 162 9% | 17 1.0% | 945 100% | 3.71 | 1.2 |
Table
3 shows the reflection of the factor "planning" which had 3 items.
Many of (61.3%) primary school teachers (with
| | | | | | | | | |
| I think about how I could best handle the problematic situation. | 123 39.0% | 156 49.5% | 10 3.2% | 26 8.3% | 3 1.0% | 315 100% | 4.19 | 0.8 |
| I read Holy Quran in a stressful situation. | 127 40.3% | 138 43.8% | 32 10.2% | 16 5.1% | 2 0.6% | 315 100% | 4.18 | 0.8 |
| Total %age of factor | 250 41% | 294 45% | 42 4% | 42 4% | 5 1.0% | 630 100% | 4.17 | 0.8 |
Table 4 shows the reflection of
the factor "religious support," which had 2 items. Most of (88.5%)
primary school teachers (with
| | | | | | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I accept the stressful situation. | 74 23.5% | 136 43.2% | 60 19.0% | 39 12.4% | 6 1.9% | 315 100% | 3.74 | 1.01 |
| I accept the reality that it happens. | 78 24.8% | 149 47.3% | 57 18.1% | 31 9.8% | 0 0% | 315 100% | 3.87 | 0.8 |
| I accept that it has happened and cannot change. | 109 34.6% | 135 42.9% | 20 6.3% | 21 6.7% | 30 9.5% | 315 100% | 3.86 | 1.2 |
| Total %age of factor | 261 41% | 420 45% | 137 4% | 91 9% | 36 1.0% | 945 100% | 3.82 | 1.03 |
Table
5 shows the reflection of the factor "acceptance” which had 3 items. The
majority of (66.7%) primary school teachers (with
| | | | | | | | | |
| I concentrate on work or other activities to take my mind out of things. | 131 41.6% | 131 41.6% | 59 18.7% | 26 8.3% | 0 .0% | 315 100% | 4.06 | 0.9 |
| I watch TV and movies to cope with a stressful situation. | 65 20.6% | 65 20.6% | 50 15.9% | 55 17.5% | 7 2.2% | 315 100% | 3.63 | 1.06 |
| Total %age of each response | 196 31.1% | 131 37.6% | 59 17.3% | 81 12.9% | 7 1.1% | 630 100% | 3.84 | 0.9 |
Table 6 shows the reflection of
the factor "mental disengagement," which had 2 items. The majority of
(74%) primary school teachers (with
| | | | | | | | | |
| When I get troubled, I let my emotions out. | 84 26.7% | 108 34.3% | 73 23.2% | 47 14.9% | 3 1.0% | 315 100% | 3.71 | 1.04 |
| I feel emotional distress and I try to express my feelings to others | 66 21.0% | 156 49.5% | 28 8.9% | 49 15.6% | 16 5.1% | 315 100% | 3.66 | 1.1 |
| Total %age of each response | 150 41% | 264 45% | 101 4% | 96 9% | 19 1.0% | 630 100% | 3.68 | 1.07 |
Table 7 shows the reflection of
the factor "Focus on venting emotions which had 2 items. Many of (61%)
primary school teachers (with
| | | | | | | | | |
| I pretend that stress has not really happened | 69 21.9% | 100 31.7% | 81 25.7% | 64 20.3% | 1 0.3% | 315 100% | 3.55 | 1.05 |
| I imagine that stress is not there | 72 22.9% | 110 34.9% | 29 9.2% | 75 23.8% | 29 9.2% | 315 100% | 3.38 | 1.3 |
| I refuse to believe that stress has an accord. | 64 20.3% | 107 34.0% | 32 10.2% | 107 34.0% | 5 1.6% | 315 100% | 3.37 | 1.1 |
| Total %age of factor | 205 21.7% | 317 33.5% | 142 15.3% | 246 26.3% | 35 3.7% | 945 100% | 3.43 | 1.15 |
Table 8 shows the reflection of
the factor "denial" which had 3 items. Many of the (53.6%) primary
school teachers (with
| | | | | | | | | |
| I wait for the precise time to do something in a stressful condition. | 144 45.7% | 140 44.4% | 19 6.0% | 12 3.8% | 0 0.0% | 315 100% | 4.32 | 0.7 |
| I leave the stressful situation up to the time. | 132 41.9% | 145 46.0% | 20 6.3% | 18 5.7% | 0 0.0% | 315 100% | 4.24 | 0.8 |
| I try not to make matters worse by early action. | 151 47.9% | 124 39.4% | 24 7.6% | 16 5.1% | 0 0.0% | 315 100% | 4.30 | 0.8 |
| Total %age of each response | 427 45.1% | 409 43.2% | 63 6.6% | 46 4.8% | 0 0.0% | 945 100% | 4.28 | 0.7 |
Table
9 shows the reflection of the factor "restraint coping" which had 3
items. The majority of (90.1%) primary school teachers (with
| | | | | | | | | |
| I make fun of the situation for relaxing | 32 10.2% | 37 11.7% | 33 10.5% | 188 59.7% | 25 7.9% | 315 100% | 2.57 | 1.1 |
| I laugh about the stressful situation | 33 10.8% | 25 7.9% | 47 14.9% | 157 49.8% | 53 16.8% | 315 100% | 2.45 | 1.1 |
| Total %age of each response | 65 10.5% | 62 9.8% | 80 12.7% | 345 54% | 78 12.3% | 630 100% | 2.51 | 1.1 |
Table 10 shows the reflection
of the factor "humor" which had 2 items. Many of the (68%) primary
school teachers (with
| | | | | | | | | |
| I get help from the seniors in stressful matter | 82 26.0% | 145 46.0% | 23 7.3% | 55 17.5% | 10 3.2% | 315 100% | 3.74 | 1.1 |
| I talk to someone who could do something concrete about the problem | 135 42.9% | 131 41.6% | 19 6.0% | 26 8.3% | 4 1.3% | 315 100% | 4.17 | 1.1 |
| Total %age of each response | 217 34.4% | 276 43.8% | 42 6.65% | 81 12.9% | 14 2.20% | 630 100% | 3.9 | 1.1 |
Table
11 shows the reflection of the factor "Seeing of social support for
instrumental reasoning," which had 2 items. The majority (72%) of the
primary school teachers (with
| | | | | | | |
| Male | 104 | 117.47 | 11.24 | 4.23 | 313 | .000 |
| Female | 211 | 111.71 | 11.39 |
Table 12 shows that there was a significant difference between primary teachers' coping strategies as indicated by a t value of 4.23 with df = 313 and p value .000 < .05. The greater mean score of 117.47 showed that male teachers used better coping strategies as compared to the female primary school teachers (mean score 111.71).
| | | | | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F1-Positive Reinterpretation and Growth | Male | 104 | 20.11 | 3.04 | 3.83 | 313 | .000 |
| Female | 211 | 18.51 | 3.66 | ||||
| F3- Planning | Male | 104 | 10.56 | 3.62 | 2.16 | 313 | .040 |
| Female | 211 | 11.43 | 3.18 | ||||
| F5- Accept | Male Female | 104 211 | 12.03 11.20 | 1.97 2.60 | 2.87 | 313 | .004 |
| F8-Denial | Male | 104 | 11.35 | 2.94 | 5.36 | 313 | .000 |
| Female | 211 | 9.79 | 2.11 | ||||
| F9- Restraint Coping | Male | 104 | 13.38 | 1.23 | 3.282 | 313 | .001 |
| Female | 211 | 12.61 | 2.26 | ||||
| F9- Humor | Male | 104 | 5.99 | 2.26 | 6.214 | 313 | .000 |
| Female | 211 | 4.54 | 1.77 |
Table 13 shows the variation in
stress management strategies adopted by male and female teachers. The table
shows the analysis of the factors where there was a significant difference. The
analysis reflected that male and female teachers don't adopt the same stress
coping strategies. Female teachers adopt more planning tools (t=2.16, df=313,
| | | | | | | |
| Rural | 175 | 113.98 | 11.12 | .625 | 313 | .533 |
| Urban | 140 | 113.15 | 12.30 |
Table 14 shows that no significant difference was found between urban and rural primary school teachers' stress coping strategies, as indicated by t value .625 with df = 313 and p value .533 > .05. It means both rural and urban primary school teachers use the same stress coping strategies.
| | | | | | |
| Between Groups | 1407.894 | 2 | 703.94 | 5.331 | .005 |
| Within Groups | 41200.627 | 312 | 132.05 | ||
| Total | 42608.521 | 314 |
Table 15 shows the comparison of stress coping strategies of primary school teachers with respect to an an academic qualification. F value (5.331) and p-value was .005 i.e. less than 0.05, showed a significant difference in strategies to cope with stress among primary school teachers with different academic qualifications. To find out the difference in occupational stress of primary teachers, a post hoc test was run and offered in table 15.
| | | | | |
| BA/ B. Sc | MA/ M. Sc | 3.51 | 1.58 | .02 |
| M. Phil | 6.05 | 1.87 | .001 | |
| MA/ M. Sc | M. Phil | 2.54 | 1.61 | .117 |
Table 16 shows only significant results. The mean difference value of 3.51 shows that primary teachers with BA / B.Sc qualification use better stress coping strategies than the teachers with the qualification of MA / M. Sc and also than M. Phil qualified teachers (Mean difference =6.05). Similarly, Mean difference value 2.54 shows that primary teachers with MA / M.Sc qualification use better stress coping strategies than the teachers with M. Phil qualification. The trend shows that primary teachers with lower qualification use better stress coping strategies than higher qualified teachers.
| | | | | | |
| Between Groups | 408.69 | 2 | 204.34 | 1.511 | .222 |
| Within Groups | 42199.83 | 312 | 135.25 | ||
| Total | 42608.52 | 314 |
Table 17 shows the comparison of stress coping strategies with respect to professional qualification. F value (1.511) and p-value was .222 i.e. greater than 0.05 shows no significant difference of stress coping strategies among primary teachers with different professional qualifications.
| | | | | | |
| Between Groups | 246.629 | 2 | 123.314 | .908 | .404 |
| Within Groups | 42361.892 | 312 | 135.775 | ||
| Total | 42608.521 | 314 |
Table 18 shows the comparison of stress coping strategies with respect to experience. F value (0.908) and p-value was .404 greater than 0.05, showing that there was no significant difference of stress coping strategies among teachers with different teaching years experience
Stress is inevitable in the life of everyone and people use different techniques to cope with it. Teachers' job is sensitive and different from all other jobs and they face many types of stress. It is interesting to know the teachers’ strategies for coping with stress. Different international and national studies revealed different findings of this. Vereen, Butler, Williams, Darg, & Downing, (2006) also found that "Humor technique as a stress coping is not used." Whereas a study in china by Wu, & Chan, (2012) found that in China, teachers use minimum frequency of humour. A study conducted by Hussain, Zulfqar, & Aziz, (2019) entitled “Analyzing Stress Coping Strategies and Approaches” of 400 School Teachers with varied backgrounds working in both private and public schools and revealed that ‘planning’ to actively solve the problem, 'positive reinterpretation' ‘Turning to religion’, and, emotion-oriented strategies are mostly used strategies, while avoidance and social-support approaches are used least. Similarly, in India which has a similar Education system to Pakistan, A study on 120 teachers in Rajpur city of Chattisgarh, India, was conducted by Shukla, Patel, Mishra, & Parasar (2016) to find out gender differences in stress coping styles among school teachers. They found that between female and male teachers, no significant difference in strategies of coping with stress was found. Moreover, a study by Sharma (2019) entitled “Gender Differences in Stress and Coping Strategies among School Teachers” was carried out in Himachal Pradesh, India, on 300 secondary and primary school teachers and concluded that male teachers use more strategies about problem focused (or removing the cause of the stress like social support approach) and females use more Emotion Focused Coping Strategies (regulating negative emotional reactions like avoidance approach). But Bibi, Kazmi, and Chaudhry (2015) found that the difference between female and male teachers’ strategies for coping with stress was not significant and also found no link between job experience and the use of strategies for coping with stress.
Conclusions drawn are
1. Most of the stress coping techniques used by primary school teachers were social support, religious support, acceptance, focus on venting emotions and restraint techniques.
2. Less used stress coping techniques used by primary school teachers were positive reinforcement, mental disengagement and denial techniques.
3. The technique which was not used by the majority of primary school teachers was humor.
4. Male primary school teachers were using better coping strategies as compared to the female teachers. Mostly female primary teachers are better at using more planning tools and male primary teachers are better at using techniques like positive reinterpretation and growth, accepting the presence of stress, denying/ignoring stress techniques, restraint coping and humor.
5. Rural and urban primary school teachers use similar stress coping strategies.
6. Primary teachers with lower qualifications use better stress coping strategies than higher qualified teachers.
7. There was no difference in strategies in coping with stress among primary school teachers having varied professional qualifications and diverse teaching experience in years.
It is recommended that School Education Department may arrange guidance and counseling programs to encourage teachers to use better stress coping strategies.
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
This study did not require formal ethics approval.
Data sharing is not applicable to this article.