Prevalence of Occupational Stress among Secondary School Teachers in Public Schools in the District of Colombo, Sri Lanka

Abstract

Teacher occupational stress is increasing globally. We aimed to determine the prevalence of occupational stress among secondary teachers, to advocate policies for prevention of occupational stress among teachers in Sri Lanka. A cross-sectional study included 1426 secondary teachers, selected using multistage cluster sampling from public schools of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Validated Teacher Stress Inventory-Sinhala (TSI-Sinhala) assessed occupational stress. Prevalence of high [15.9% (95% CI: 14.0%-17.8%)] and moderate [67.5% (95% CI: 65.1%-69.9%)] occupational stress among secondary teachers, resulted an overall high prevalence of 83.4% (95%CI: 81.4%-85.3%). Moderate occupational stress among female teachers (68.6%, 95% CI: 65.7-71.5%) was significantly higher than males (61.9%. 95% CI: 58.9-64.9%). Urgent attention to preventative interventions for occupational stress among teachers in Sri Lanka is recommended.