Teuta Agai–Demjaha1*, Jordan Minov1,
Sasho Stoleski1, Beti Zafirova2
1Institute of Occupational Health of Republic of Macedonia, WHO
Collaborating Center, Department of Occupational Medicine, Medical Faculty,
Ss Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia;
2Institute of Epidemiology and Biostatistics with Medical
Informatics, Medical Faculty, Ss Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje,
Skopje, Republic of Macedonia
BACKGROUND: Once high levels of work-related stress among teachers
were confirmed many studies concentrated on identifying and investigating
key stress factors among school teachers. Unfortunately there are very few
researches made on stress causing factors among teachers in Republic of
Macedonia.
AIM: To determine the most frequent stress causing factors among
teachers in elementary schools and to investigate their relationship with
demographic and job characteristics.
METHODOLOGY: We performed a descriptive-analytical model of a
cross-sectional study which involved 300 teachers employed in nine
elementary schools. Evaluation of examined subjects included completion of a
specially designed questionnaire.
RESULTS: Among six categories of factors that generate work related
stress (job demands, control, relationships, role, changes and support)
control and support had the highest mean scores. Within the control category
the highest levels of perceived teacher’s work-related stress were caused by
the following factors - changes in terms and conditions without consultation
and given responsibility without the authority to take decisions. 141 out of
the interviewed teachers (47%) have mentioned changes in terms and
conditions without consultation as very stressful, while another 50 (16.67%)
have reported it as stressful. 123 out of interviewed teachers (41%) have
stated given responsibility without the authority to take decisions as very
stressful, with another 105 (35%) have reported it as stressful. In the
category support the highest levels of perceived teacher’s work-related
stress were caused by stress factors - lack of funds/resources to do the job
and limited or no access to training. Out of 300 interviewed teachers, 179
(59.67%) have reported lack of funds/resources to do the job as very
stressful, while another 50 (16.67%) as stressful. There is no significant
relationship between the stress factor limited or no access to training and
demographic and job characteristics.
CONCLUSION: Our findings confirm that within the control category,
the highest levels of perceived teacher’s work-related stress were caused by
changes in terms and conditions without consultation and given
responsibility without the authority to take decisions, while in the
category support, the same was true for stress factors lack of
funds/resources to do the job and limited or no access to training. We have
also concluded that the lower-grade school teachers, female teachers,
teachers for whom this is the first job and teachers with university
education perceive more often the lack of authority to take decisions as a
very stressful factor than the upper-grade school teachers, male teachers,
teachers previously employed in another workplace, and those with high
education. The lower-grade school teachers, older teachers and teachers with
university education perceive more often changes in education as a very
stressful factor than the upper grade school teachers, younger teachers and
those with high education.
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Citation: Agai–Demjaha T, Minov J, Stoleski
S, Zafirova B. Stress Causing Factors Among Teachers in Elementary Schools
and Their Relationship with Demographic and Job Characteristics. OA Maced J
Med Sci. http://dx.doi.org/10.3889/oamjms.2015.077
Key words: workplace; stress causing factors; teachers; elementary
school; job characteristics.
*Correspondence: Miss Teuta Agai Demjaha. Institute of Occupational
Health, Gjore Gjoreski 127, Skopje 1000, Republic of Macedonia. E-Mail:
teutademjaha@yahoo.com
Received: 30-Apr-2015; Revised: 13-Jun-2015; Accepted: 14-Jun-2015; Online
first: 01-Jul-2015
Copyright: © 2015 Teuta Agai–Demjaha, Jordan Minov, Sasho Stoleski,
Beti Zafirova.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are
credited.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing
interests exist.