Date of Award

1-1-2009

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Organizational Unit

Morgridge College of Education

First Advisor

Kent Seidel, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Richard Scudder

Third Advisor

Keith Jacobus

Fourth Advisor

Paul Michalec

Keywords

Coping resources, Occupational stress, OSI-R, Probationary teacher

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to measure what factors impact the stress levels of probationary teachers who may or may not be new to the field of education, to determine what demographic characteristics are related to higher levels of stress, to determine what coping resources were successful in reducing stress, and to compare the stress levels and coping resources of probationary teachers to other professionals.

The study used the OSI-R to determine the stress levels of k-12 probationary teachers as related to role overload, role insufficiency, role ambiguity, role boundary, responsibility, and physical environment as measured by the Occupational Roles Questionnaire (ORQ) sub scale of the OSI-R. The study determined the coping resources used by these teachers as measured by the Personal Resources Questionnaire (PRQ) of the OSI-R which measures recreation, self-care, social support, and rational/ cognitive coping.

Of the 140 people who were sent the survey, 91 responded which was a return rate of 65%. Majority of the respondents were female primarily between the ages of 20 and 49. The average years of experience in education was 7.67 years with most being of the "veteran" category having been in the field of education more than five years.

The results indicated that there was a significant difference between probationary teachers and other professionals for the Role Overload, Role Insufficiency, and Role Ambiguity, Self-Care, and Social Support scales. Beginners, within 0-1 years of educational experience, reported statistically significant scores as compared to their more experience counterparts on the Role Ambiguity scale.

Probationary teachers are more stressed than other professionals and feel that their training, education, skills, and experience are either inadequate or inappropriate for the requirements of their jobs. They also reported higher levels of stress in relation to which their priorities, expectations, and evaluation criteria were clear when compared to other professionals. They have a greater ability to coping with stress by completing personal activities to alleviate stress and feel more significantly supported and helped by those around them when compared to other professionals.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Lori Ann Wagner

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

157 p.

Discipline

Educational administration

Download



Share

COinS