Stress, Gender and Coping Strategies among Secondary School Teachers in Kampala District

Purpose: The study aimed at assessing the sources of stress among male and female teachers, coping strategies adopted by the teachers and the effects of stress on the job performance of teachers.  Methodology: The study adopted a survey design with both quantitative and qualitative methods.  The study was conducted among secondary school teachers who were picked from both private and government aided schools in Nakawa Division, Kampala District.  The sample consisted of 100 teachers who were selected through stratified random sampling that comprised of 50 male and 50 female teachers. Stress among teachers was assessed using a stress scale questionnaire and the coping strategies were assessed using the coping questionnaire developed by Folkman and Lazarus (1988) and open ended questionnaire was used to assess the effects of stress on the performance of teachers.  Quantitative data was coded on themes derived from the objectives of the study.  Quantitative data was analyzed using factor analysis, t-test and correlation analysis.  Findings: The major sources of stress in terms of factors were work-oriented, personal failure factors and poor working habits factors. In case of coping strategies for social support seeking coping strategy, the main strategy used was “accepted since nothing could be done” and e least used was “avoided stressful work”. Emotional focused coping strategy had “prayed or got involved in other spiritual activities” as main strategy used while “I brought the risk to myself” was the least used strategy.  And “kept myself from thinking too much about stress” was main strategy used while “gone on as if nothing had happened” was least used by the teachers in coping with stress. There was a negative relationship between all the three factors of stress indicating that whenever one was stressed, then their performance was negatively affected.