The relationship between teachers’ stress and buoyancy from day to day: Two daily diary studies

Abstract

Despite the pertinence of teachers’ buoyancy to ‘everyday work’, existing studies do not investigate buoyancy in close proximity to everyday experiences. Nor does existing research longitudinally investigate teachers’ buoyancy and how it relates to stress. This paper describes two quantitative daily diary studies on this relationship. Study 1 includes a relatively large sample of teachers (N = 151), compared to the number of days that they were followed (T = 15). Study 2 includes relatively few teachers (N = 10), but follows them for an extended period of time (T = 61). Both studies tested hypotheses regarding the extent to which teachers’ stress and buoyancy beliefs vary − and carry over − from day to day and the extent to which teachers’ buoyancy beliefs and stress experiences co-occur and predict each other from day to day and from teacher to teacher. Results showed that both teachers’ buoyancy beliefs and stress experiences varied and carried over significantly from day to day, although carryover effects were small. The relationship between buoyancy beliefs and stress was negative from teacher to teacher and concurrently from day to day. However, cross-lagged effects between both constructs from day to day were not significant. These results imply that both teachers’ buoyancy beliefs and stress are malleable, state-like constructs to a considerable extent, but their dynamics likely occur on a timescale that is smaller than daily.