The effects of teaching experience and grade level taught on teacher stress: A LISREL analysis

Abstract

In this study a LISREL model of teacher stress was tested which used grade level taught and years of teaching experience as independent variables; perceived stress and life events stress were used as observed indicators of the latent dependent variable teacher stress. Subjects were 166 elementary and secondary public school teachers from schools in northwestern Ohio. Goodness-of-fit indices indicated a good fit of the proposed model. Grade level taught had a negative effect on teacher stress, whereas teaching experience did not account for a significant portion of the variance in the dependent variable. These results suggest that it might be beneficial to school administrators and others to focus more on possibly strong effects of grade level taught on teacher stress, rather than concerning themselves with alleviating the stress experienced by novice teachers.