TEACHER JOB STRESS IN ALBANIA: EXAMINING THE ROLE OF STUDENTS’ CLASSROOM DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR AND OTHER FACTORS IN THE SCHOOL CONTEXT

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of the students’ disruptive behavior and other factors in the school context on the teachers’ job stress. For this purpose a survey based descriptive research was conducted with 540 basic education teachers. The instrument used was a structured questionnaire which was comprised of four scales for measuring teacher stress, students’ disruptive behavior, time pressure and workload, relations with school principal and relations with colleagues. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was used to determine the direction and the strength of the relationships between the teachers’ job stress and the stress related factors. Standard multiple regression was used to determine the amount of variability on teachers’ job stress explained by the independent factors involved in the study. The study findings indicated low to substantial correlations between teachers’ job stress, students’ disruptive behaviour, time pressure and workload, relations with school principal and relations with colleagues. Students’ disruptive behaviour, time pressure and workload and relations with school principal were found to be significant predictors of teachers’ job stress. Relations with colleagues were not found to be a significant predictor of teacher stress. Key words: relation with colleagues, relation with school principal, students’ disruptive behavior, teacher job stress, time pressure and workload.