Teacher stress: An eight-year follow-up study on teachers' work,stress, and health

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare teacher stress between the years 1983 and 1991. Seventy teachers in comprehensive and upper secondary schools participated in the study. The teachers were studied first during the school year 1983–84 and again eight years later during the autumn term of 1991 by means of repeated questionnaires. During this 8-year period the general working situation among the teachers had remained quite stable: Most of them had remained at the same school teaching the same subjects at the same level. The results showed a drop in the teachers' well-being over the period. In particular, those over 55 years of age showed more emotional stress reactions in 1991 than eight years earlier. Furthermore, they evaluated their social relations with pupils as worse in 1991 compared to 1983. A half both of those with low emotional stress reactions and those high in them in 1983 were stilll in the same categories in 1991. Emotional stress reactions were reflected in simultaneous work ability and psychosomatic health data. Moreover, long-term stress was seen to lead to various psychosomatic complaints, but these were not reflected in self-rated health status. The results suggest that teacher stress is not necessarily a short-lived problem, and ways of preventing or reducing stress (e.g. continuing education, counseling, co-operation) should be employed.