Junior High School Mid-Level Teacher Stress: Characteristics and Prevention

Abstract

This study examines the characteristics of stress among mid-level junior high school teachers, and its prevention. The subjects were teachers who participated in a training program for teachers with 10 years’ experience, which is legally required for public junior high school faculty. The subjects’ ages ranged between 32 and the mid-40s. A questionnaire survey regarding their stress was conducted. The result showed that stress characteristics of the teachers are categorized as follows: sluggishness, lack of time, feeling inadequate in the workplace, and feeling resistant to new initiatives. Furthermore, it was revealed that their stress characteristics are closely related to gender, marital status, and whether or not they want to be a manager. Thus, sluggishness is high among teachers who don’t want to be a manager, whereas feeling inadequate in the workplace is high among teachers who don’t have a spouse. Furthermore, feeling resistant to new initiatives is higher among female than male teachers. Moreover, no significant difference is found in their lack of time. Therefore, it was shown that all of the mid-level teachers feel the same stress level for lack of time. In addition, the results show that their stress is related to burnout.　 Furthermore, it is shown that cognitive operation coping is effective for dealing with the stress these teachers experience. In contrast, solution avoidance coping increases their stress. We examined the direction of their stress prevention from the above results.