The goal of this study was to analyze job stress and efficiency of teachers at child care centers based on their socio-demographic backgrounds, such as personal and environmental variables. To find out the correlation between job stress and efficiency...
The goal of this study was to analyze job stress and efficiency of teachers at child care centers based on their socio-demographic backgrounds, such as personal and environmental variables. To find out the correlation between job stress and efficiency of teachers, I underwent three research tasks.
The research method was to give out a questionnaire to 1,000 teachers at child care centers, with a target of 603 teachers who would respond. The questionnaire consisted of items related to both personal and situational variables; more specifically, the items about job stress and teacher efficiency were to be answered using a five-point scale.
For the analysis of the data, I used the t-Test and One-Way ANOVA methods from which I derived Pearson's correlation coefficient. The program used for this statistical analysis was SPSS version 12.0.
The findings of this study are summed up as follows :
First, the teacher who worked at a child care center accommodating a large number of children perceived his/her job as more stressful than the teacher who worked at a child care center accommodating a small number of children.
In regards to the level of stress at the job, teachers at large facilities, corporate-owned facilities, and facilities in small cities viewed their situations as being more stressful. As for colleague-related stress, teachers at large facilities and those in small cities perceived greater stress. As for childcare-related stress, single teachers saw their situations as more stressful. As for parent-related stress, teachers at facilities in small cities perceived their situations as more stressful. As for administration-related stress, teachers at large facilities perceived their situations as more stressful. As for facility-related stress, teachers of facilities in small cities considered their situations to be more stressful.
Secondly, teachers of older groups, small facilities, private facilities, and facilities in large cities perceived themselves as being highly efficient. The two subcategories by which teacher efficiency was judged were general efficiency and personal efficiency. As for general efficiency, senior teachers considered themselves to be highly efficient, and as for personal efficiency, married teachers and teachers at small facilities considered themselves to be highly efficient
Thirdly, the study showed that there is a negative correlation between job stress and teacher efficiency. In other words, as the job stress of a teacher becomes high, the teacher thinks of him/herself as being less efficient.
Based on the findings in this study, there is need to further study the reason behind high job stress and low teacher efficiency; in addition, there is a need to study policy support to enhance teacher efficiency.