Association of teacher stress with coping strategies and leisure participation and satisfaction among special education teachers in elementary and middle schools

Three instruments were used to evaluate teacher stress and their coping strategies: the Teacher Stress Inventory (Fimian, 1988); the Personal Resources Questionnaire (PRQ) of the Occupational Stress Inventory (Osipow & Spokane, 1984); and the Leisure Participation and Satisfaction Instrument (Ragheb, 1980). Teachers (135) who had children with disabilities in their classes in elementary and middle schools in one North Carolina county were included in the study.;Data was analyzed to determine the associations among coping strategies, leisure participation and satisfaction, participation in physical activities and the level of teacher's stress. Four research questions were addressed and three hypotheses related to three of these questions were tested. Research Question 1. What is the association between coping strategies and teacher stress? Hypothesis 1. Coping skills have a positive impact on teacher stress management. Research Question 2. What is the association between coping strategies and leisure activity participation and satisfaction to teacher stress? Hypothesis 2. Leisure activities have a positive impact on teacher stress management beyond that explained by coping skills. Research Question 3. What is the association between coping strategies and participation in physically active leisure activities and teacher stress? Hypothesis 3. Participation in physical activities has a positive impact on stress management beyond that explained by coping skills. Research Question 4. What is the association of selected demographic variables with teacher stress?;Data were analyzed using regression analysis for testing the three hypotheses and comparison of means, MANOVA and ANOVA for Research Question 4. Hypothesis 1 received strong support with many of the coping strategies having significant negative beta weights associated with most of the teacher scales, indicating that as specific coping strategies increased, specific types of stress as well as total stress decreased. Hypothesis 2 received some support with mixed results with only some coping strategies and leisure activities reducing levels of some types of teacher stress. Hypothesis 3 received support showing that participation in physical activities reduced the levels of some types of teacher stress. Analysis of results for Research Question 4 showed that mutual peer support and teacher/supervisor support are significant in their ability to reduce teacher stress.