Sources of Stress and Stress Management Strategies among Secondary School Teachers in Onitsha Urban

Abstract

The study investigated the sources of stress and stress management strategies among secondary school teachers in Onitsha Urban. The descriptive survey design was used to carry out the study. Research questions and hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Pertinent and related literature on sources of stress and stress management was reviewed. The target population of the study comprised all married and unmarried secondary school teachers in Onitsha Urban. The population of the study was 1820 teachers. Multistage sampling was used. Out of 65 schools in Onitsha urban, 20 teachers were randomly selected from 23 sampled secondary schools, thus, the total sample for the study was 460 teachers. A self-developed, validated and reliable questionnaire on sources of Stress and Stress management Questionnaire for Teachers (SSSMQT) was used for data collection. The data were collated, tallied and coded manually by the researcher and statistician made entries into the Computer. The mean was used in answering research questions. The ANOVA, Z-test and Scheffe’s post hoc test were used to test the stated hypotheses. The result among others showed that: generally, the secondary school teachers agreed with all the items that measured their sources of stress and also stress management strategies, however, there were variations based on the variables. Some hypotheses result indicated that teachers of different age groups perceived stressors the same way; Also, teachers sources of stress based on the nature of their school showed that both private and public school teachers perceived stressors the same way. Stress management strategies based on different age groups showed that age did not play any significant role in the way stress was managed among teachers. Teachers stress management strategies due to distance to school showed that distance of teachers home had no influence in teachers’ management of stress.