The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of the job stress on psychological wellbeing of special education teachers and the moderating effects from social supports in the process. For this purpose a survey was conducted with 135 special e...
The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of the job stress on psychological wellbeing of special education teachers and the moderating effects from social supports in the process. For this purpose a survey was conducted with 135 special education teachers in elementary, middle, and high schools located in Southern Gyounggi Province using questionnaires, e-mails, and interviews in person. As a result, a total of 125 replies were collected, and 118 of them were included in the final analysis.
SPSS 18.0 software was used for analysis of the data, and a hierarchical multiple regression analysis was performed in order to examine the moderating effect. An additional item for the interaction between the job stress and the social support which was the moderating variable was generated, where the controlling variables were put in the 1st stage , followed by the job stress, which was the independent variable, in the 2nd stage. The social support, which was the moderating variable, was added in the 3rd stage, followed by the interaction between the job stress and the moderating effect in the 4th stage. The positive analysis of the relationship between the job stress and psychological wellbeing of the special education teachers showed that the psychological wellbeing of the teachers was negatively affected by the sub variables of the job stress, in the order of the relationship between other teachers, administrative supports, and the relationship with the parents of the students.
In the next step of our study, the moderating effect of the social support on the influence from job stress upon psychological wellbeing of the teachers was analyzed. In order to examine the relationship between the job stress and the social support, the job stress was analyzed using 6 sub variables, which were, respectively, the student behaviors, administrative supports, the relationship with other teachers, the relationship with the parents of the students, time management, and the inner conflict of the teachers themselves. The result of the analysis showed that one of the sub variables of social support, that is, the support from the administrators of the school, appeared to have a significantly negative correlation within the interaction with the administrative support that is one of the sub variables of job stress. Based on the result of the study, the role of the administrator of the school in supporting the works of special education teachers and the operation of their classes turned out to be of great importance at schools. In addition, it is required for such administrators to have fund a psychological understandings on special classes to ensure the special educations teachers have relevant expertise and operate their classes with autonomy and efficacy. To serve such a need, it would be necessary to provide the school administrators with job trainings and education programs more actively with a systematic support from the office of education, etc.