Elsevier

Journal of School Psychology

Volume 78, February 2020, Pages 54-68
Journal of School Psychology

Profiles of middle school teacher stress and coping: Concurrent and prospective correlates,☆☆

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2019.11.003Get rights and content

Abstract

This study examined the stress and coping patterns of middle school teachers. A final teacher sample of 102 and student sample of 1450 agreed to participate in the study. We conducted a latent profile analysis of the teachers' self-reported levels of stress and coping at the beginning of the school year and used the resulting profiles to predict teacher practices and student outcomes over time. Nearly all teachers were characterized by high stress and high coping (66%) or high stress and low coping (28%). Based on concurrent ratings and observations, the High Stress/Low Coping profile had higher burnout and lower self-efficacy, higher rates of observed reprimands, and higher student-reported depression in comparison to the other classes. The most adaptive profile, Low Stress/High Coping (6% of sample), had lower burnout, greater parent involvement and higher student prosocial skills in comparison to the other groups. Profiles also predicted the maintenance of most of these effects and the increase of some effects over the school year. Examining stress and coping in combination can inform efforts to improve teacher well-being and have a positive influence on student learning environments.

Introduction

Teachers commonly report high levels of occupational stress. Teacher stress combined with poor coping are associated with undesirable outcomes such as high burnout, low teaching self-efficacy, less effective classroom management practices, lower student learning outcomes, and higher depressive symptoms (Klassen, Usher, & Bong, 2010; Lauermann & König, 2016; Shin, Noh, Jang, Park, & Lee, 2013). A recent study found that nearly all early elementary school teachers reported moderate to high levels of work-related stress and varying levels of coping capacity (Herman, Hickmon-Rosa, & Reinke, 2018). The teachers' patterns of stress and coping were related to the teachers' classroom behaviors and student outcomes in predictable ways; that is, higher levels of stress and lower levels of coping were associated with maladaptive teacher behaviors and lowered student outcomes.

The present study attempted to examine these relations in a middle school sample using a person-centered technique, latent profile analysis (LPA), to identify the patterns and prevalence of teacher stress and coping and the associated correlates for the various stress and coping profiles. Middle school is a particularly important time in students' educational lives as they transition from elementary school and have many different teachers. While teachers across grade levels are known to experience stress, little is known about the specific stress profiles of middle school teachers or the relations of those stressors with teacher and student outcomes. The transactional theory of stress provides a foundation for understanding teachers' experiences with stress and coping (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984).

Teachers face multiple and interacting demands from students, parents, colleagues, and administrators, and all of these demands may contribute to teacher stress. Kyriacou (2001) described teacher stress as the “unpleasant, negative emotions, such as anger, anxiety, frustration, or depression,” associated with the work of teaching (p. 28). At the classroom-level, teacher stress can result from the challenge of attempting to meet the educational, behavioral, and social-emotional needs of all the youth in the classroom. Teachers report specific stressors of managing classroom disruptions, increasing student motivation, and differentiating instruction (Boyle, Borg, Falzon, & Baglioni, 1995; Herman & Reinke, 2015; Kyriacou, 2001). Beyond the classroom, school-level factors including interactions with colleagues, lack of resources and support, as well as evaluations from administration can contribute to teacher stress (Herman & Reinke, 2015; Kyriacou, 2001). Further, broader systemic working conditions like low salaries, changing academic requirements, and high workloads contribute to teacher stress and dissatisfaction. Teachers often report the occupation is “very or extremely stressful,” (Kyriacou, 2001), and teaching is ranked as one of the most stressful jobs in the helping professions (Johnson et al., 2005).

The transactional theory of stress (Lazarus and Folkman 1984) has been applied to describe the experience of teacher stress and conceptualize coping responses (Dick & Wagner, 2001; Kyriacou & Sutcliffe, 1978; McCarthy, Lambert, Lineback, Fitchett, & Baddouh, 2016; Montgomery & Rupp, 2005). In this theory, stress is determined by a balance between a teacher's perception of environmental demands in comparison with a teacher's perceptions of his or her capacity to meet those demands (McCarthy et al., 2016). For example, teacher demands may include managing challenging student behavior or completing excessive paperwork. Coping is defined as the behavioral and psychological responses to these environmental demands (Lazarus, 1993). Coping responses may include positive self-talk in the moment to try to calm down or taking action to address the demand such as creating a behavior plan to reduce student disruptions. In line with transactional stress theory, teachers experience stress when they perceive the demands of their environment to be beyond their capacity or personal resources to cope.

Thus, in the transactional theory, stress and coping are optimally considered simultaneously to understand their role in influencing health and well-being (Lapierre & Allen, 2006; Lazarus & Folkman, 1987). Successful coping can buffer against the negative effects of environmental stressors whereas poor coping may exacerbate these effects (Lazarus & Folkman, 1987). Coping strategies may directly address the source of stress or may help a person tolerate the experience of stress (Kyriacou, 2001; Montgomery & Rupp, 2005). Effective use of coping can lead to more positive emotional outcomes, and thus coping is important to understand along with stress from a theoretical as well as a preventative perspective. Interventions to support teachers with coping strategies such as relaxation skills and mindfulness have been found to have effects on reducing teacher burnout (d = −0.76), anxiety symptoms (d = −0.71), and depressive symptoms (d = −1.06) (Roeser et al., 2013). Given the connection between stress and coping and the potential to improve teacher coping, examining both constructs is essential for understanding the stress experience and its impact on well-being and functioning (Lazarus, 2000).

Over time, patterns of chronic high stress and low coping can lead to burnout. Whereas stress and coping can be examined as momentary states that may fluctuate over time, burnout refers to chronic or persistent experiences of emotional exhaustion from working in a helping profession, along with depersonalization, and a diminished sense of accomplishment (Maslach, 1993). Aligning with the transactional theory of stress, both the stressors or demands in the environment and coping abilities to respond to the demands together contribute to predictions of burnout. In one study, stress (β = 0.19), demands (β = 0.22), and coping (β = −0.31), uniquely predicted the emotional exhaustion dimension of burnout while controlling for teacher experience (McCarthy, Lambert, O'Donnell, & Melendres, 2009). High levels of stress and burnout over time are both physically and emotionally demanding and can increase the risk of negative health outcomes such as heart disease and respiratory illness (Salvagioni et al., 2017), as well as emotional outcomes including depression and anxiety (Shin et al., 2013; Steinhardt, Smith Jaggars, Faulk, & Gloria, 2011). In addition to affecting teacher well-being, prolonged teacher stress can influence the broader profession as teachers who are experiencing dissatisfaction may decide to leave the field altogether (Macdonald, 1999). Skaalvik & Skaalvik (2011) used structural equation modeling in a sample of 2569 Norwegian teachers to examine the relations between school context variables, teacher factors and job satisfaction and motivation to leave the profession. They found that teacher emotional exhaustion predicted motivation to leave the profession and mediated the relationship between school context variables and intentions to leave (Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2011). High teacher attrition and turnover is expensive for the educational system and reduces the social cohesion and sense of community within the school environment (Ingersoll, 2001; Watlington, Shockley, Guglielmino, & Felsher, 2010). Given the negative outcomes associated with teacher attrition and teacher burnout, understanding specific patterns of stress and coping that potentially lead to burnout and attrition can inform efforts to intervene.

In addition to predicting teacher burnout, teachers' profiles of stress and coping may be associated with lower protective factors for teachers such as teaching self-efficacy; that is, teachers who experience high stress levels tend to have lower levels of teaching self-efficacy (Herman et al., 2018). Self-efficacy is the belief that one can succeed at a given challenge within a specific domain; thus teaching self-efficacy is teachers' self-belief that they can influence and control student outcomes regardless of students' backgrounds and behaviors (Bandura, 1993; Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2001). Teaching self-efficacy is associated with higher student achievement, engagement, and academic self-efficacy (Ashton, Webb, & Doda, 1983; Bandura, 1993; Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2001). When teachers reported higher levels of teaching self-efficacy they were also likely to report higher levels of confidence for setting challenging goals for their students, finding ways to help students accomplish those goals, and having the confidence to solve learning challenges (Tschannen-Moran and Hoy, 2001, Tschannen-Moran and Hoy, 2007). Teachers who believe they are capable of managing their classrooms are more likely to engage in effective teaching practices that support positive student outcomes (Herman et al., 2018). Additionally, teacher self-efficacy is related to discrete and observable classroom management practices including higher rates of positive interactions with students and fewer harsh reprimands (Reinke, Stormont, Herman, & Newcomer, 2014).

Prior research has demonstrated how stress and coping over time can be associated with the development of teacher burnout and impact teacher's confidence and abilities in the classroom; however, less is known about the relations between teacher stress and coping and student outcomes. The prosocial classroom theory proposes that teachers' well-being and social emotional functioning influences the ability of teachers to effectively lead academic instruction and manage the classroom behaviors which in turn affect student outcomes (Jennings & Greenberg, 2009). When teachers struggle with high stress and low coping, they are more likely to have adversarial relations with their students, feel more annoyed with student behaviors, and view their students negatively (Grayson & Alvarez, 2008; Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001). Students who have teachers who are emotionally exhausted have lower student achievement scores and grades, lower school satisfaction, and low perceptions of teacher support (Arens & Morin, 2016). In turn, teachers at risk for burnout may respond to students in more punitive and harsh ways that exacerbate unwanted student behaviors (Jennings & Greenberg, 2009). Consistent with this theory, a meta-analysis of the relationship between teacher burnout and student behaviors found a positive association between disruptive behavior and emotional exhaustion (r = 0.44) and depersonalization (r = 0.36), and a negative association between disruptive behaviors and personal accomplishment (r = −0.31) (Aloe, Shisler, Norris, Nickers, & Rinker, 2014). One recent study found that higher rates of negative interactions with students at the start of the school year predicted the escalation of disruptive behaviors and reduced prosocial behaviors at the end of the school (Reinke, Herman, & Newcomer, 2016). Further, teachers who are not coping well may be less effective in modeling important social emotional competencies for the students in their classrooms (Schonert-Reichl, 2017). Likewise, when teacher coping is low, they may not be able to provide important relational qualities or effectively structure their classrooms in ways that youth need for healthy development. In turn, students in poorly managed classrooms may have higher levels of depressive symptoms (Herman, Reinke, Parkin, Traylor, & Agarwal, 2009).

Finally, teacher stress can also interfere with teacher-parent relationships. Teacher perceptions of parents can have a major influence over parent involvement in education (Herman & Reinke, 2017; Thompson, Herman, Stormont, Reinke, & Webster-Stratton, 2017). By reducing teacher self-efficacy and fostering negative perceptions, teacher stress can serve to undermine parent participation and engagement in school. These considerations are important as those students who may have less family involvement and fewer coping strategies need higher levels of teacher social-emotional support and guidance (Jennings & Greenberg, 2009).

From a developmental perspective teachers may have a differential influence on student functioning depending on the grade level, as the developmental tasks vary based on students' ages. Though prior studies have found that stress, coping, and burnout levels in teachers do not vary significantly across grade levels, it is possible that the potential influence of teacher factors on students may vary based on the developmental stage of the students. Many studies of teacher stress and the influence on student outcomes have used samples of elementary school students samples (i.e., Oberle & Schonert-Reichl, 2016); however, as students move into adolescence and transition into middle school, the relationship and potential influence of the teacher changes. Shifting class schedules mean that students spend less time with one teacher during the day and instead may see multiple teachers, which may contribute to the developmental shift in the importance of relationships from adults, like teachers and parents, toward peers (Lynch & Cicchetti, 1997). While it is commonly assumed that teacher-student relations are less important in secondary schools, a recent meta-analysis found the associations between teacher-student relationships and student engagement and achievement were significantly stronger in middle school compared to elementary school (Roorda, Koomen, Spilt, & Oort, 2011). Thus, middle school teacher stress may be especially harmful to the extent it interferes with teacher-student relationships. The importance of student-teacher relationships and in turn teacher stress also takes on special significance in middle school because of the well-documented decline in student engagement during secondary school years (Marks, 2000; McDermott, Mordell, & Stoltzfus, 2001). Teachers in middle school can promote self-determination and motivation/engagement at this stage (Ryan & Patrick, 2001; Wentzel, 1998), and student engagement is predictive of long term outcomes like going to college. The classroom environment can also influence student risk for mental symptoms including anxiety and depression (Herman et al., 2009; Herman, Borden, Reinke, & Webster-Stratton, 2011; Webster-Stratton & Herman, 2008).

It is important for studies of teacher stress and coping to examine prospective relations between teacher stress and coping on teacher and student outcomes. Although the prosocial classroom theory proposes that teachers' well-being directly influences their classroom management and interaction patterns with students which in turn leads to different student outcomes, it is likely that teacher stress and coping interact with environmental demands in a reciprocal manner over time. That said, limited experimental evidence is available to determine if teacher self-reported stress and coping precede and cause worsening of teacher practices and relationships which in turn cause negative student outcomes. Absent such evidence, it is also plausible that excessive environmental demands including extreme student misbehavior precede and cause increases in teacher stress and lower coping. Notably, however, the transactional theory suggests that regardless of the origin of stress, including a mismatch between person and environment fit, subjective appraisals of stress and coping influence health and well-being and can be directly altered to improve personal and social outcomes. Thus, even in challenging environmental circumstances, individuals vary in their self-reported coping skills and can be taught to cope more effectively.

Although multiple methods have been developed to measure teacher stress, single-item ratings have been commonly used for the past several decades (for a detailed review, please see Eddy et al., 2019; Boyle et al., 1995; Elo, Leppanen, & Jahkola, 2003; Kyriacou, 2001; Kyriacou & Sutcliffe, 1978). While stress may be conceptualized as a multidimensional construct consisting of common sources and responses to stress, a single-item measure provides a valuable global summary of the overall experience of occupational stress. Single-item measures of stress have the advantage of brevity, particular given the paperwork burden presented to teachers in their daily routines and as part of larger surveys they are often asked to complete. They also are similar to a commonly used clinically proven strategy for quickly assessing distress over time called the Subjective Units of Distress scale (SUDS; e.g., a self-report measure of distress ranging from 0 (no distress) to 10 (extremely high distress)) (Wolpe, 1990). Although single-item scales are discouraged by classical psychometric theory which cautions that single-items are inherently unreliable, it could be argued that the caution is merely an artifact of how reliability is defined in the Spearman Brown formula which rewards longer surveys by increasing reliability for each item on a scale. Moreover, evidence suggests that single-item ratings can predict related constructs often as well as much longer surveys and are also used in measuring general occupational stress outside of teacher populations. For instance, Elo Leppanen, & Jahkola, (2003) found that a single stress item accurately discriminated employment groups and predicted related constructs rated on much longer scales including the emotional exhaustion scale on the Maslach Burnout Inventory. In an education context, across a series of studies, Stormont and colleagues have found that teacher single-item ratings of student academic and behavior readiness predicted short and long-term academic and behavior outcomes in kindergarten and in middle school as well or nearly as well as much longer measures, including academic achievement tests (Lewis et al., 2017; Stormont, Herman, Reinke, King, & Owens, 2015; Stormont, Thompson, Herman, & Reinke, 2017). Most recently, Eddy et al., 2019 found that single-item ratings of teacher stress and coping were associated with concurrent and prospective ratings of teacher burnout and self-efficacy as well as teacher practices. Notably, the single-item coping measure was also sensitive to change in response to intervention.

The purpose of the study was to examine the patterns of stress and coping in middle school teachers and the association of these profiles with concurrent and prospective teacher and student level outcomes. We used the transactional theory of stress (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) as a foundation to examine teachers' patterns of responding to stress and coping items using LPA, which identifies subgroups of teachers based on their shared patterns of self-reports of stress and coping levels. LPA provides an optimal approach for examining the transactional theory because levels of stress and coping are considered simultaneously as person-centered effects. That is, LPA identifies subtypes of individuals based on their combined levels of stress and coping rather than examining the distinct effect of each variable on covariates as occurs in traditional variable-centered analyses (such as factor analysis, multiple regression). Our research questions were:

  • 1)

    What profiles of stress and coping emerge for middle school teachers? We hypothesized that three or more profiles of stress and coping would emerge from the LPA. In line with a prior study in elementary schools, we expected to find that many teachers would be in profiles characterized by high levels of stress (Herman et al., 2018). Consistent with the transactional theory of stress, we predicted at least two high stress profiles would be differentiated by levels of teacher reported satisfaction with coping, ranging from high to low. In turn, we hypothesized one subtype of teachers to be characterized by high levels of effective coping and low levels of stress, and like the prior elementary school study, we expected this to represent a minority of teachers.

  • 2)

    What teacher and student outcomes are associated with the profiles of stress and coping? We hypothesized that these profiles of stress and coping would be associated with teacher and student covariates in line with the prosocial classroom theory (Jennings & Greenberg, 2009). In particular, we expected the least adaptive profile(s) characterized by high stress and lower coping to be associated with negative concurrent and prospective teacher functioning (burnout, specifically emotional exhaustion, and self-efficacy), teacher behaviors (use of reprimands), and student and family outcomes (disruptive and prosocial behaviors, parent involvement, and youth depressive symptoms). Likewise, we expected teachers in an adaptive profile with high levels of coping to have the most favorable teacher, family and youth outcomes.

Section snippets

Participants

Student and teacher participants were recruited from all nine middle schools in two neighboring urban school districts in the Midwest. The demographic characteristics of the communities served by these districts mirror one another. In District A, 54% of residents identify as Black, 38% White, 2% Hispanic, 2% Asian, and 4% more than one race. Seventeen percent of households have income levels below the federal poverty guidelines, and the community has an 11% unemployment rate. Additionally, 47%

Descriptive statistics and correlations

Table 1 summarizes the means, standard deviations, range for all key study variables at baseline. Table 2, Table 3 depict the intercorrelations among the stress and coping items and other study variables. The stress and coping items were correlated −0.39. The stress item had significant relations with burnout at both Time 1 and 4. The coping item had significant intercorrelations with nearly all other study variables ranging from small to medium effects.

Teacher stress and coping profiles

Based on the fit indices (e.g., BIC, adj

Discussion

Consistent with study hypotheses, we found three profiles of stress and coping in a middle school sample of teachers. These profiles were uniquely associated with nearly all of the concurrent measures of teacher functioning and behavior as well as with measures of parent and student functioning. In particular, the least adaptive class, characterized by high levels of stress and low coping, had consistently lower levels of self-efficacy and higher levels of burnout. The most adaptive class,

Conclusion

Teacher stress management is an important area of inquiry because of its implications for teacher health, well-being, and persistence in the profession. Additionally, supporting teacher coping is important because of its relation to youth outcomes. Supporting adaptive coping in teachers has the potential to reduce teacher attrition and improve youth social and behavioral health particularly when combined with efforts to improve school environments by reducing the burden and challenges

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    The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305A130143 to Dr. Keith Herman and the University of Missouri. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education.

    ☆☆

    This article is part of the special issue 'Advances in Understanding and Intervening in Teacher Stress and Coping; Edited by Dr. Keith Herman, Dr. Wendy Reinke, and Ms. Colleen Eddy’.

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