Teacher quality of work life: Integrating work experiences, psychological distress and morale

Abstract

What are the positive and negative work experiences reported by teachers, and how do these contribute to their quality of work life? This paper reports structural equation analyses conducted on questionnaire data obtained during three studies from 1539 Australian primary and secondary school teachers. Drawing on perceived quality of life research it was hypothesized that psychological distress and morale would be separate outcomes of positive and negative work experiences. Results confirmed that psychological distress and morale operate on different dimensions. Three structural equation models showed that positive experiences were stronger determinants of morale than psychological distress, whereas negative experiences were stronger determinants of psychological distress than morale. Psychological distress and morale contributed equally to teachers' overall quality of work life. When examined simultaneously it was found that positive experiences contributed only to morale whilst negative experiences contributed only to psychological distress. These findings challenge conventional wisdom and suggest that it is not possible to enhance morale by reducing negative experiences, nor is it possible to reduce psychological distress by focusing on positive experiences.