Job strain and sense of coherence: Associations with stress-related outcomes among teachers.

Joacim Ramberg,Jannike Nilbrink,Gabriella Olsson,Sara Brolin Låftman,Susanna Toivanen

doi:10.1177/14034948211011812

Joacim Ramberg, Jannike Nilbrink + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/14034948211011812

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Abstract

Background: Teachers constitute an occupational group experiencing high levels of stress and with high sick-leave rates. Therefore, examining potentially protective factors is important. While prior research has mainly focused on the link between teachers’ own experiences of their work environment and stress-related outcomes, it is also possible that colleagues’ perception of the work environment and their possibilities for dealing with work-related stress contribute to influencing individual teachers’ stress. Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate how teachers’ reports of high job strain (i.e. high demands and low control) and sense of coherence (SOC), as well as the concentration of colleagues reporting high strain and high SOC, were associated with perceived stress and depressed mood. Methods: The data were derived from the Stockholm Teacher Survey, with information from two cross-sectional web surveys performed in 2014 and in 2016 (N=2732 teachers in 205 school units). Two-level random intercept linear regression models were performed. Results: High job strain at the individual level was associated with higher levels of perceived stress and depressed mood, but less so for individuals with high SOC. Furthermore, a greater proportion of colleagues reporting high SOC was associated with lower levels of perceived stress and depressed mood at the individual level. Conclusions: High SOC may be protective against work-related stress among teachers. Additionally, the proportion of colleagues reporting high SOC was related to less individual stress, suggesting a protective effect of school-level collective SOC.

Highlights

Teachers are an occupational group that experiences high levels of stress in their workplace compared to many other occupational groups [1,2]
The estimates for psychological demands, job control and sense of coherence (SOC) are presented to demonstrate their independent associations with stress and depressed mood, while in Table III, estimates for low and high strain as well as low and high SOC are presented
High job strain accompanied by low SOC was more strongly associated with the stress-related outcomes than high job strain accompanied by high SOC

Summary

Introduction

Teachers are an occupational group that experiences high levels of stress in their workplace compared to many other occupational groups [1,2]. Results from several reports show that the levels of stress among Swedish teachers have increased sharply over the last decades [3,4] This demanding work situation for teachers at the same time as there is an acute national shortage of teachers makes it important, on a societal level, to increase the knowledge about what factors may contribute to stress and what factors can serve as protective. Such knowledge is crucial for the development of efforts to improve working conditions at schools for Swedish teachers. The proportion of colleagues reporting high SOC was related to less individual stress, suggesting a protective effect of school-level collective SOC

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