Teachers’ Stress Level as a Correlate of Deviant Behaviours among Form Two Students in Machakos County, Kenya

Abstract

Deviant behaviors among secondary school learners have continued to be a global issue and Machakos County is not exceptional. There are limited Studies showing the relationship between teacher level of stress and students’ deviant behaviors. This study was designed with the aim of exploring whether students’ tendency to engage in deviant behaviors is related to teacher levels of stress. The Cultural Deviance theory by Shaw and Mckay which views deviant behavior as a result of escape from freedom was used. The researcher used a correlational research design. The target population was 53 public secondary schools with 280 teachers. The study’s locale as well as the targeted schools were purposively selected. The sample from which data was gathered comprised of 160 teachers. The number of participants in each school was sampled proportionately. Stratified sampling technique helped in grouping the schools into distinct categories from which sample size was drawn from. The questionnaire which the researcher adapted from an existing instrument was filled to yield the data for the research. Piloting was done before the main data collection exercise to ascertain the validity of the adapted tool and enable testing the appropriateness of the data analysis technique. Quantitative data was analyzed through Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) (Version26). Pearson product moment correlation was applied to test the null hypothesis. The study found out that the higher the levels of teacher’s stress the higher the student’s deviant behavior and the lower the levels of the teacher stress the lower the student’s deviant behavior (152) =.49, p=00. The study concluded that teachers’ gender and working experiences were not significant predictors of students’ deviant behavior. The R Square value indicated that the predictor variable (teacher level of stress) accounted for about 53% of the total variance in students’ deviant behavior. The study recommended that there was need to effectively implement teacher performance, appraisal, and development fully and facilitate capacity building to ensure that the teachers’ efficacy skills were improved to reduce students’ deviant behavior in secondary schools.