A hierarchical model of teacher stress: Antecedents and consequences in teachers' work and life

Work-related stress is becoming a well-recognized concern in teachers' career development and teachers' quality of life. To provide useful information and potential ways to reduce teacher stress and its related negative consequences, a hierarchical model of teacher stress was proposed and tested in vocational high schools in Mainland China. 273 school teachers participated in this study. Teacher stress was assessed and the antecedents (role ambiguity, role overload, and role conflict) and consequences (job satisfaction and illness symptoms) were examined. Structural equation modeling was performed to examine the direct and indirect/mediating effects among the variables. Results are presented in figure 1. Results indicated that: 1) role overload and role conflict were the positive predictors of teacher stress; 2) teacher stress was a negative predictor of job satisfaction and positive predictor of illness symptoms; 3) teacher stress fully mediated the relations between role overload/role conflict and job satisfaction/illness; 4) role ambiguity negatively related to job satisfaction. The results suggest that school leaders should try to avoid the ambiguity, overload and conflict tasks assigned to school teachers, thus decrease teachers' stress level, and further increase their job satisfaction and reduce illness symptoms due to stress.