School Leadership, Climate, and Professional Isolation as Predictors of Special Education Teachers’ Stress and Coping Profiles

Abstract

Much recent literature has highlighted the stressful nature of teaching and its relations with teacher and student well-being. The present study extended this literature to focus on special education teachers. We first conducted a latent class analysis to characterize patterns of stress and coping among special education teachers (N = 404). Consistent with several prior studies with general education teachers and principals, we found three profiles: normative (high stress/high coping), maladaptive (high stress/low coping), and adaptive (low stress/high coping). Next, we examined school contextual predictors of these profiles including leadership characteristics (collegial, instructional), density of special education teachers (an indicator of professional isolation), and climate factors (teacher affiliation, school structure and support, safety, expectations). The maladaptive class was distinguished by a lower proportion of special education teachers, worse perceptions of school disciplinary structure and school safety, and higher academic expectations. The findings have implications for improving the burnout model presented in the special series overview and for creating school contexts that improve special education teacher well-being, persistence, and implementation fidelity.