Asssessment of Work Stress and Coping Strategies among Primary School Teachers

Abstract
Background: Teaching as a profession is progressively becoming a stressful occupation. Stress is one of the worst health problems with which teachers has to deal with. Also coping may be an important resource to teachers in dealing with multiple demands of their profession.
Aim of Study: The study aimed to assess the work stress and coping strategies among primary school teachers.
Material & Methods: A descriptive design was utilized. The study was conducted at three schools from each of four districts at Cairo Governorate. A simple random sample used to select 12 schools and all teachers included in the study sample (378). Three tools were used to collect data which includes: Primary school teacher's questionnaire, Occupational Stress Rating Scale and Coping Scale.
Results: The result reveals that 74.3% had moderate stress while 23.8% had low stress and only 1.9% had high level of stress. The mean score of problem focused coping were (37.72±10.789), while emotional focused were (67.63±13.941) and total mean of coping were (105.35±13.214). There were a statistically significant difference between the teacher's gender & stress and coping score (p=.000). There were a statistically significant positive correlation between teacher's age and working data and stress (p=.000).
Conclusion: The study concluded that majority of teachers had moderate and high level of work stress and used emotional focused coping more than problem focused.