Abstract
This study was designed to investigate the influence of demographic factors on stress perceptions and stress management practices of teachers of public secondary schools in Cameroon. Four research questions were posed and five hypotheses postulated to guide the study. Specifically the study sought to find out the factors causing stress, symptoms of stress, influence of stress and stress management practices adopted by teachers. The work also examined influence of gender, qualification, experience, cultural background, school location and school size on stress perceptions, symptoms, influences and stress management practices of the teachers. The study employed an Ex- post facto research design. The population of the study comprised all the 5482 teachers, 3230 from Littoral and 2252 from the South-West Regions. The sample consisted of 986 teachers from the two Divisions, urban and rural in each Region representing English and French-speaking teachers. The proportionate stratified random sampling technique was used to randomly select 18 % of 150 schools and all the teachers were used for the study. 405 teachers from South West and 581 from Littoral were used. Data for the study was collected using a 62- item instrument titled Teacher Stress and Stress Management Practices Questionnaire (TSSMPQ). Experts from the Department of Educational Foundations; two in Educational Administration, two in Psychology and one from Educational Measurement and Evaluation face validated the instrument. The final draft of the instrument was validated and translated into French by an expert translator. Internal consistency reliability of the instrument was estimated using Cronbach alpha technique based on trial testing. Descriptive statistics of mean scores were used to answer research questions, while multiple regression analysis was used in testing the hypotheses at probability level of 0.05. The major findings revealed that, factors that constituted stress to a high extent were: students’ misbehaviour, large classes, poor salaries, lack of basic facilities for teaching, high work load, short time frame for marking and submission of results and irregularity in promotion. Pains and consisted tiredness or fatigue were symptoms of stress occasionally manifested. Teachers occasionally suffer from inability to manage time well and meet deadlines as the influences of stress on them. Teachers adopted stress management practices such as: eating balanced diets, being religious, thinking objectively about a situation and keeping one’s feelings under control, doing physical exercise, relaxing after work, giving and receiving social support from colleagues, avoiding confrontation with people and so on. Perception of stress was not influenced by factors of gender, qualification, experience, cultural background, school location and size. Manifestations of symptoms of stress significantly depended on the combined influence of gender, qualification, experience, cultural background, school location, and school size. However, only size of school significantly influenced symptoms of stress and the influences of stress on teachers. Combined influence of the independent variables on stress management practices adopted by the teachers was significant. Only gender, experience and cultural background significantly influenced stress management practices of teachers. The study recommended that Government should provide adequate facilities in schools and improve teachers’ conditions of service. The important limitation was the reluctance of respondents to the responses that led to low return of copies of the instrument. A suggestion for further study was for a replication of the study to be carried out in other Regions with a larger sample and a different design.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
The school system is an organization which is managed by the principal who is the chief executive and administrator. His Administration plays a role where there is a job to be done and where two or more people are available for it. Administration according to Fayol cited in Ndu, Ocho & Okeke (1997), is the careful analysis of the job to be performed and the training of workers to fit into the job. Administration therefore deals with the mobilization of the efforts 0f a number of people who work with materials towards the achievement of common objectives. The educational organization comprises the principal, teachers, students and non academic staff. For a good human relationship to exist for the achievement of goals, the principal as the administrator must create an environment conducive for the teachers. This is done through his leadership styles, establishing of effective rapport and channels of communications with the subordinates. If the school environment is not conducive, it may cause stress on the teachers. Secondary schools in Cameroon are those schools that educate children after basic education prior to higher education. These schools aim at preparing students for useful living, responsible citizenship, higher education and for professional training.
Scholars all over the world have attempted to conceptualize stress but no conclusive definition has been arrived at. Some scholars like Selye (1976), have used the term to mean that general response which the human body makes to any demand on it. While stress is the condition that touches on well being, stressors are the agents which actually create stress (Selye cited in Oboegbulem (2002: 2). Such stressors tend to produce in the individual, not only physical and psychological reactions which are usually distressful or depressing, but also symptoms of emotional and psychological instability. Stress comes as a body’s response to pressure. It can be described as any action that places physical and psychological demands upon a person (Woolfolk cited in Okere & Onyechi, 2007).The researcher sees stress as any prolonged unfavourable situations, which may lead to psychosomatic illnesses if adjustments are not made depending on individuals. These illnesses may be high blood pressure, heart problem, epigastric pains, chronic headache and stomach ache Stress in another sense can be seen as a feeling which occurs when an individual’s working; living conditions or circumstances make demands beyond one’s capacity to handle such a situation physically or emotionally. Again, stress may be expressed in the form of physical or mental disturbance, strain, obstacles in the path of achieving goals, conflicting demands, uncertain role prescriptions, taxing work conditions among others (Oboegbulem, 1995, p, 5).
From the above definitions, stress can be seen as a worry or disturbance which is physical, psychological, physiological, and sociological as a result of inability to meet with certain demands from the work place or home. However, stress may result to physical or psychological illness when exposure is excessive and prolonged. It may also result to reduction in productivity and low morale of teachers.
A stressed person is one suffering from anxiety, worry and frustration. Stress is also the predominant cause of work-related illness in education sector (HSE, 2007). Teacher stress therefore may be defined or described in terms of those uncomfortable situations experienced on the job. This may cause them fear, anxiety, discomfort, anger or depression as well as other associated psychological disorders (Kryriacou, 1987). Teacher stress is seen as those physical or psychological situations concerning the job that bring discomfort. If these conditions persist, they may generate actions and reactions that may affect teachers’ well being and interfere with students’ academic and social developments. The major evidence, in favour of this argument that teachers are stressed may be found in the typical Cameroon classroom situation. The researcher’s classroom experience across the nation, would reveal how utterly difficult and unconducive the atmosphere is for optimal teaching and learning. The number of students meant for a class of 35 is occupied by about a hundred students and adequate spaces for ensuring free movement for the supervision of students by teachers are lacking. This could be seen in schools in the city such as Douala where a lot of classrooms are overcrowded, thus militating against effective teaching and learning.
In Cameroon, the poor image of teachers, as reflected on mass media, local level and the society have led to a loss of reputation and reduction in self esteem and respectability. The salary review of 1993-1994 of civil servants due to economic crises caused the teaching profession to be more stressful and less rewarding. This has led to the infamous brain drain of some clever, efficient and dedicated staff to greener pastures and obviously to lucrative fields in other lands.
The teachers’ problem is not recruitment but retention, ‘we train teachers poorly, and then treat them badly-and poor they leave in droves” (Merrow, 1999: 64) Teachers who perceive lack of support and treatment view their work as highly stressful, and high levels of stress are reported to be one of the main reasons teachers leave the profession in the early years of their career (Borg &Riding, 1993). However, it is well established that stress can result in physical and psychological illness when exposure is excessive and prolonged (HSE, 2007). Therefore long lasting stress on the teachers in the area of study is likely to affect productivity leading to poor performance of students.
World wide surveys reveal concern about the effects of stress on teachers’ sense of well-being and their willingness to stay in the profession. Compared to the general population, teachers are at risk of higher levels of psychological distress and lower levels of job satisfaction (Travers & Cooper, 1993, Schonfield, 1990). Borg (1990), reports that up to one third of teachers perceive their occupation as highly stressful. Teacher stress can lead to alienation, apathy, and absenteeism and eventually interferes with students’ achievement (Guglielmie & Tatrow, 1998). It is likely that teachers in Cameroon experience similar effects of stress on them. There is lack of proper education policy since the colonial take over of schools, poor implementation with legislation dealing with education as well as excessive centralization with regard to the administrative, pedagogic and financial management of schools .There is also the absence of a reliable statute for teachers and personnel of the Ministry of National Education now called Secondary Education. The inadequacy of school infrastructure in terms of quality and quantity, the shortage of teachers, poorly adapted and overloaded programmes and lack of a reliable statute for teachers can be justifiable reasons for teacher stress in Cameroon (Cameroon National Forum on Education, 1995; 10).
The symptoms of stress are manifested differently by different people. Such symptoms are: suppression of the reproductive system, insomnia, anxiety. aggressiveness. For others chronic stress affects the body’s intake of sugar and produces the onset of diabetes. Chronic stress creates muscle tension, fatigue, migraine headaches, diarrhoea, constipation, arthritis, asthma, gastrointestinal disorders, chronic pain and a whole host of immune system disorders (Siani, 2007). If stress is inevitable, and if so much stress is a threat to our psychological and physical well-being, then managing well with stress is of paramount importance. What then is important is how teachers can manage stress.
Stress management, according to Wikipedia (2009), is the amelioration of stress, especially chronic stress. Stress management comprises measures taken to cope with trying periods so that a state of psychological or physiological equilibrium is re-established and subsequently maintained (Cooper in Oboegbulem, 2004). Stress management practices may be defined as coping actions, behaviour, or attitude which an individual exhibits when faced with certain psychological, physiological and social demands that tax his adaptive resources (Oboegbulem, 1995). In this study the word coping is used interchangeably with management practices. Coping correctly with stressors facilitates successful adaptation, while a failure in this process puts individuals at risk of poor adaptation. Two types of coping measures have been assessed in the past decades namely: problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping (Parker& Endler, 1996). The problem –focused coping refers to modification of the objective situation by changing either something in the environment on how individuals interact with the environment. This focuses on solving, reconceptualizing, or minimizing the effects of a stressful situation. Emotion-focused coping consists of individuals’ efforts to control the emotional distress associated with a situation. This kind of coping includes self –pre-occupation, fantasy (a pleasure situation one enjoys thinking about), or other conscious activities related to emotional regulation .This is most likely to occur when individuals believe that nothing can be done to alter the situation .The different emotion –focused coping behaviours include: to make positive interpretations, to accept the reality of the situation, to deny the reality of the situation, to focus on what ever is distressing, to ventilate problems and to seek social support.
Social support is defined as the kind of aid and backing that individuals receive from interactions with other persons (Bishop, 1994).Social support, improves one’s ability to manage or alleviate stress. The tendency to disclose one’s feelings to friends (or to a psychotherapist) has been shown to improve immune system functioning. Social support in the course of improving immune system functioning, reduces need for medical care and alleviates stress (Pennebaker, Colder & Sharp, 1990), & Richards, Beal, Seagal & Pennebaker 2000). Some authors consider avoidance as another kind of coping strategy. Parker & Endler, (1996), note that along with assessing problem-focused and emotion-focused coping, other measures that have been created include; to evaluate avoidance coping responses separately. In this study avoidance considered within the framework of emotion-focused coping is conceptualized as a distraction of a stressful situation.
The need for stress management practices is necessary for beginning teachers. They often experience a phenomenon similar to culture shock. Entering a new environment with meagre surviving skills, teachers become disoriented, disillusioned and insecure. The corresponding stress that can follow has been termed “Reality Shock” (Gaede cited by Krueger, 2002). “Reality Shock” is the type of stress beginning teachers often experience which is like burnout. Burnout is a syndrome of physical and emotional exhaustion involving the development of a negative self concept, negative job attitudes, loss of concern and feeling for people (Dunham, 1992). There are a number of practices that counteract the negative effects of stress on the body. Practices such as meditation, physical exercises, adequate sleep, balanced nutrition, and effective time management, have been shown to decrease stress and the perception of control. There is need to determine the stress management practices of the teachers in Cameroon.
Gender, qualification, experience, cultural background, school location and school size are the demographic variables in this study. Gender is the psychological experience of one’s sex (Gentile, 1993). Gender refers to the role of male and female. It is the social, cultural and sociological characteristics assigned to men and women. In teaching and other fields of work, certain roles are stereotyped to males and females. It is likely that male and female teachers might perceive stress and manage stress differently. Hence the study of the variable of gender and its relationship with stress in this research is necessary.
Qualification is another factor that was investigated. A qualified teacher is one who is well trained professionally and academically for the teaching job. Ngoka (2000) in a study using Nigerian teachers revealed that University graduate teachers reported less stress than their non- graduate colleagues. This may be because the more qualified ones have acquired coping strategies during their training that can enable them work under less stress more than less qualified ones who need more time to orientate themselves to the job. This might be applicable to Cameroon and needs to be investigated.
Teaching experience of teachers is related to stress. More experienced Nigerian teachers perceived less stress while less experienced teachers perceived more stress with events dealing with time pressure. (Oboegbulem, 1995). This may be because less experienced teachers might be young and would not possess enough emotional maturity to cope with school stressors. Sometimes they are likely to face (socio-economic, cultural, and political problems within the student/ parent/school population) (Krueger, 2002). It may be because the older on the job, the better a teacher improves on his/her teaching techniques and skills. The influence of experience on stress and stress management practices of teachers in public secondary schools in Cameroon has not been studied.
