Stress and Coping Strategies of University Teachers in Pakistan

The purpose of the present study was to identify the perceived job stressand stress coping strategies used by the teachers in Pakistani universities.The study used a survey research design comprising two segments: a)first section identifies how the presence of negative factors and theabsence of positive factors cause stress for university teachers in theircareers. b) The second part identifies the coping strategies used by themto explore the ways for effective stress management. The data wascollected by the instruments Perceived Job Stressors (Kanner, Kafry, &Pines, 1978) and The Coping Inventory (Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub,1989) to identify the stressors and the preferred coping strategies used bythe faculty. The data indicate that university faculty experience stressboth due to presence of negative factors and absence of positive factors.The most important stress coping strategy used by them was positivereinterpretation & growth, followed by turning to religion, planning,suppression of competing activities, active coping, restraining coping,seeking social support for emotional reasons, acceptance, mentaldisengagement, alcohol-drug disengagement, focusing on & venting ofemotions. Moreover, age of teachers influence the adaptation of abovementioned three coping strategies namely positive reinterpretation &growth, turning to religion, and mental disengagement.