Similarities and differences in occupational stressors and coping resources in African-American and European-American teachers of students with emotional behavioral disorders

The student population in American schools reflects a growing number of cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Although the diversity of the student population has increased dramatically, the teaching force has remained predominantly European-American female. Differences between teachers' and students' cultures can negatively impact levels of teacher stress and contribute to attrition. Attrition is an issue as states are already experiencing severe teacher shortages in some certification areas, particularly special education. To staff classrooms, states grant provisional and emergency certificates. Less than fully qualified teachers are more likely to experience career-ending stress. Stress is exacerbated when dealing with the most challenging students, those with Emotional/Behavioral Disorders (EBD). Stress, even that related to educating students with EBD, may be mitigated by personal coping resources.; The purpose of this study was to identify differences in stressors and available coping resources among African-American and European-American teachers of students with EBD with provisional or professional certification. The EBD Teacher Stressor Questionnaire (EBD/ TSQ) (Center & Callaway, 1999; Center & Steventon, 2001) was used to measure stress and the Coping Resources Inventory for Stress (CRIS) (Matheny, Aycock, Curlette, & Junker, 1993) was used to identify coping resources. A MANOVA yielded significance on the main effect certification type (p = .05). A significant interaction was also found for race and certification type (p = .03). Professionally certified teachers of students with EBD were found to be more stressed with fewer coping resources than their provisionally certified counterparts. In regard to the significant interaction of certification and race, (p < .04) for the EBD/ TSQ, and (p < .05) for the CRIS, significant differences appear to be due to differences between EBD /TSQ scores for professionally certified African-American and provisionally certified African-American EBD teachers. The significant effect for the CRIS appears to be due the difference between the CRIS scores for professionally certified African-American and provisionally certified African-Americans teachers, indicating that provisionally certified African-American teachers appear to have both less susceptibility to occupational stressors and have greater coping resources.