Teachers Stress Level of Sta.

Elena Senior High School in Marikina City

Sheila Mae A. Malesido, LPT, MBA

Sta. Elena High School

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the level of stress of the Sta. Elena Senior
High School Teachers in Marikina City. The questionnaire adapted from
the book of Dolan and Lingham (2012) was the data gathering used.
There were 14 respondents from the faculty of Senior High in Sta. Elena
High School. The respondents were identified through purposive
sampling. Weighted mean was the statistical tool used in the study.
Results showed that the level of stress of the respondents of the Sta.
Elena Senior High School is a little stressed and very stressed as seen
in the weighted mean of 5.79. It further showed that there were 3
respondents were rated very stressed particularly respondent number
5, 8 and 10 respectively. Nevertheless, the data implies that the
respondents in Sta. Elena High School had a little stress level with the
frequency of 162.21. It further revealed that the 28 stressors marked
“sometimes” by the respondents cause stress. From the results the
comment should include a proposed stress management program to
reduce the stress level of the respondents.

Keywords: Stress, Level of stress, stress management program

Introduction

The study was undertaken due to a number of public school teachers in the
Philippines which are experiencing occupational stress. According to the study of Alfred
Solomon et. al. (2017), the sources of stress experienced by a particular teacher are
unique to him/her and depend on the interaction between personality, values and skills
and the circumstances. All mentioned stressors have been shown to lead to teachers
stress. The teachers are one who faces many of the hard challenges from students and
the management or higher authorities and become direct victims of occupational stress.
Shikieri & Musa (2012) studied the factors associated with occupational stress and their
effects on organizational performance in a Sudanese University. They attempted to
determine the factors associated with occupational stress and their relationship with
organizational performance at one of the private universities in Sudan. Their research
study depicted that on average the teacher’s experienced high degree of job stress. Job
stressors affected the general physical health, job satisfaction and work performance as
well as commitment of the teachers negatively. The study recommended that the
university needs to elevate the situation and resolve all the factors affecting the
employees as per situation. Anbu (2015) in his study on professional stress of higher

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secondary school teachers, the female higher secondary school teachers have more
stress than the male higher secondary school teachers. The reason is that female
teachers apart from guiding the terminal stage school students, have to look after their
family members, they were not able to allocate equal weight age to working as well as
family environment, hence this result in enhanced stress level. Married higher secondary
school teachers have more stress than the unmarried higher secondary school teachers
because married teachers are shouldering more responsibility than the unmarried in
terms of school work as well as in the family and society, hence they are in the position
to satisfy all the dimensions, this results in higher levels of stress. Higher secondary
school teachers working in government schools have more stress than those working in
private higher secondary schools because the government teachers have to fulfill the
work and the task given to them time by time from the administration as well as from the
government departments, hence they are more responsible to the government officials
than the private school higher secondary school teachers, hence a higher level of stress
was evident in the government school higher secondary school teachers. In addition to
this, teachers have a critical role in children’s lives and teaching has become one of the
most stressful occupations, with alarmingly high rates of job dissatisfaction and turnover.
Quick, J. C. et. al (2016) expresses in their published article that occupational stress is
a known health risk for a range of psychological, behavioral, and medical disorders and
diseases. Organizations and individuals can mitigate these disorders through preventive
stress management and enhanced wellbeing. Premature death and disability along with
chronic suffering from occupational stress are not inevitable, despite being known
outcome risks. Thus, the current study focuses in identifying the level of stress among
the Teachers in Sta. Elena High School, Marikina City. The result of the study will serve
as a guide for stress management program of the institution and its underlying
department. Determining the causes for stress will bring the healthier life of the teacher
which brings drastic positive changes in student’s educational performance and the
quality of education of the nation.

Methodology

The descriptive method was used to assess the level of stress of the faculty of the senior
high in Sta. Elena High School. According to Sevilla, et. al. (2006), descriptive method is
designed for the investigator to gather information about present existing conditions. The
researcher determined the respondents through purposive sampling, a specific type of
non-probability sampling method that relies on data collection from population members
relies on the judgment of the researcher when it comes to selecting the units (e.g.,
people, cases/organizations, events, pieces of data) that are to be studied. Usually, the
sample being investigated is quite small, especially when compared with probability
sampling techniques. In the present study the respondents were (14) senior high school
teachers who were already members of the faculty. The research instrument used was
the survey questionnaire, which was adapted from the book of Dolan and Lingham
(2012). The survey questionnaire was designed to help estimate the stress level of the
respondents in which they were tasked to rate from 0 to 10 the questions with 0
corresponding to “never” and 10 corresponding to “always” and around 5 to “sometimes.”
The results of the survey questionnaire were tallied to determine the level of stress of
the respondents with 0-90 as “not all stressed”, 91-180 as “a little stressed” and 181-280

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as “very stressed.” The researcher made an online survey form and emailed to the
respected faculty members of the Sta. Elena Senior High School. The results of the
respondents’ responses were tallied, computed and interpreted. The results were shown
through a tabular and textual presentation. The data were computed using weighted
mean, which was used to assess the level of stress of the respondents.

Results and Discussion

The presentation of data gathered follows the order of the statement of the
problem. This section presents the following variables: 1.) Level of stress of the faculty
of the Senior High School Teachers; 2) Stressors of the Senior High Teachers; and 3.)
Recommendations on stress management program to reduce the level of stress.

Level of Stress of the Faculty of Senior High School Teachers

Listed below are the level of stress of the respondents in Sta. Elena Senior High
School in Marikina City

Table 1. Level of Stress of the Senior High Teachers

Respondent Level of Stress Weighted Mean Verbal Interpretation
1 177 12.64 A Little Stressed
2 175 12.5 A Little Stressed
3 162 11.57 A Little Stressed
4 146 10.43 A Little Stressed
5 197 14.07 Very Stressed
6 145 10.36 A Little Stressed
7 166 11.86 A Little Stressed
8 183 13.07 Very Stressed
9 133 9.5 A Little Stressed
10 188 13.43 Very Stressed
11 161 11.5 A Little Stressed
12 160 11.43 A Little Stressed
13 142 10.14 A Little Stressed
14 136 9.71 A Little Stressed
162.21 5.79 A Little Stressed

Results & Verbal Interpretation: 0-90 Not all stressed 91-180 A little Stressed 181-280 Very stressed

It can be gleaned in the Table1 that the level of stress of the respondents of the
Sta. Elena Senior High School was a little stressed and very stressed as seen in the
weighted mean of 5.79. It further showed that there were 3 respondents were rated very
stressed particularly respondent number 5, 8 and 10 respectively. Nevertheless, the data
implies that the respondents in Sta. Elena High School had a little stress level with the
frequency of 162.21. This supported in the study of Baraza, O. et. al (2016) that the
prevalence and factors associated with stress among secondary school teachers in Kota
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Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia, Hadi, Naing, Daud, Nordin and Sulong (2009) found out that
stress was reported as 34%. Seventeen point four percent of teachers experienced mild
stress. Age, duration of work and psychological job demands were significantly
associated with stress level. This study indicates that job-related factors did not
contribute much to stress among secondary school teachers. They carried out a cross-
sectional study.

Table 2. Causes of the stress of the respondents

FREQ WM VI
1 Are you known for seeing the positive side of life? 118 4.21 Sometimes
Do you feel that in your case you keep all your feelings locked up
2 inside? 69 2.46 Sometimes
Do you ever get overwhelmed by the lack of time available to meet all
3 your obligations? 69 2.46 Sometimes
4 Do you ever have nothing to do? 58 2.07 Sometimes
5 Do you know how to use humor in difficult situations? 106 3.79 Sometimes
Do you believe you job affects your relationship with the people you
6 most love? 87 3.11 Sometimes
Do you need an increasingly frequent "dose" of work to feel
7 stimulated? 84 3 Sometimes
8 Does it take you a while to get your day started? 63 2.25 Sometimes
9 Do you feel you have real friends? 118 4.21 Sometimes
10 Do you ever feel "I cant take it anymore"? 59 2.11 Sometimes
11 Is it hard for you to find someone to talk to about your problems? 45 1.61 Sometimes
12 Do you want to be left alone? 39 1.39 Sometimes
13 Do you feel life is flying by? 68 2.43 Sometimes
14 Do you think youre thought of as a friendly person? 103 3.68 Sometimes
15 Do you know fun people? 120 4.29 Sometimes
16 Is it hard for you to disconnect from whats troubling you? 66 2.36 Sometimes
17 Do you have a difficult time falling asleep? 69 2.46 Sometimes
18 Do you know how to encourage yourself? 121 4.32 Sometimes
19 Is it hard for you to disconnect after a long day at work? 61 2.18 Sometimes
20 Do you know how to relax when you want to? 119 4.25 Sometimes
21 Do you have time for yourself? 110 3.93 Sometimes
22 Do you think you're "addicted" to your work? 75 2.68 Sometimes
Do you need to take substances (coffee, nicotine, alcohol or others) to
23 "keep going"? 71 2.54 Sometimes
24 Do you think "if I spoke up it would only make things worse"? 60 2.14 Sometimes
Are you irritable or bad tempered when faced with insignificant
25 problems? 64 2.29 Sometimes
26 Do you think you demand too much of yourself? 65 2.32 Sometimes
27 Do you have backaches, headaches, or pains in your jaws? 68 2.43 Sometimes
28 Do you laugh easily? 116 4.14 Sometimes
162.21 2.9 Sometimes

Results and Verbal Interpretation: 0 – Never 1 - 5: Sometimes 6 – 10 : Always

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 It can be seen from the Table 2 that there were 28 identified causes of stress. It
further showed that items #1 to items # 28 sometimes causes stress as seen in the
weighted mean of 4.21, 2.46, 2.07, 3.79, 3.11, 3.00, 2.25, 2.11, 1.61, 1.39, 2.43, 3.68,
4.29, 2.36, 4.32, 2.18, 4.25, 3.93, 2.68, 2.54, 2.14, 2.29, 2.32 and 4.14 respectively.
Nevertheless, the data implies that the items were sometimes causes stress from the
respondents from Sta. Elena Senior High School, Marikina City. This supported the
findings of Ekundayo & Kolawole (2013) entitled “stress among secondary school
teachers in Ekiti State, Nigeria”. They examined the various sources of stress among
teachers of secondary schools in Ekiti State and also examined the coping strategies
adapted by the teachers. The results revealed that poor working conditions, poor
relations with subordinates and late payment of salaries were major sources of stress.
The study also revealed that managing one’s time effectively is the main strategy for
coping with stress.

Conclusions and Recommendations

Based on the findings of the study, the stressors marked as “sometimes” cause
stress to the respondents of the Sta. Elena Senior High School which by interpretation
they were a little stressed. The comment should include a proposed stress management
program to reduce the stress level of the respondents.
According to the study of Clipa, O. (2017) there are ways to cope with the
accumulated stress at their job, teachers call for some solutions: discussing
problems with their family members, friends or colleagues (Aldrup et al., 2017),
psychological counselling, taking part in training programs for personal development
and resilience (Neves de Jesus et al., 2014; Sandilos et al., 2018), self-examination
of the life style (Fengler, 2016) avoiding situations or persons who generated the
stress, spending free time in nature, practicing physical relaxation exercises
(Fengler, 2016), changing jobs, eating healthy food and taking pills, isolation and
reflection on the situation. Among the measures considered by specialized
institutions to be efficient for stress relieve are the following: avoiding educational
politics changes, improving work conditions, suggesting objectives with a moderate
level of accomplishment, a transparent, objective assessment, increasing wage and
number of teachers, decreasing the number of pupils in a classroom, orientation
on clear objectives, program implementation regarding stress management at the job
mini-brakes during work hours, time keeping (Fengler, 2016), an attitude full of kindness,
positivism and gratitude, valuing these and the feeling of membership (Cozolino,
2017), development of the support groups and mentors for professional
development (Aldrup et al., 2017), establishing flow in teaching, establishing spaces
for stress relief at the job and improvement of the teaching wellbeing (Aldrup et al.,
2017).

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