Identifying the types of student and teacher behaviours associated with teacher stress

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Abstract

The objectives of this study were to identify the student behaviours associated with teacher stress and determine the types of teacher behaviours that may elicit these stressful student behaviours. Student teachers (n=186) and their supervising teachers (n=77) completed a stressful student behaviour questionnaire, a teacher behaviour questionnaire, and a teacher stress survey. Results showed that student lack of effort in class was most strongly associated with teacher stress. In addition, teacher behaviours were correlated with students’ behaviours of coming to class unprepared. However, few significant correlations were obtained when student behaviour and teacher behaviour data were provided by different sources.

Introduction

Stress in the teaching profession is prevalent. In studies surveying teachers from the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and America, about one-third of all teachers interviewed reported teaching to be “stressful” or “extremely stressful” (Pithers & Soden, 1998, p. 269). Teachers of different grades, in different countries, and over different time periods have all reported moderate to high levels of job stress (Fontana & Abouserie, 1993). Researching the antecedents of teacher stress is essential because this variable has been shown to be related to so many different work outcomes, such as intention to turnover (Kyriacou & Sutcliffe, 1979), job performance (Cunningham, 1983), and job satisfaction (Smilansky, 1984).

One of the most commonly reported contributors to teacher stress is student misbehaviour. However, much past research has tended to focus on describing the general correlates of teacher stress rather than illuminating the specific student behaviours that influence teacher stress (e.g., Feitler & Tokar, 1982; Payne & Furnham, 1987). Thus the first purpose of this study is to ascertain which student behaviours tend to correlate with higher teacher stress levels. This will be accomplished by developing and validating a survey of stressful student behaviours (i.e., correlating it with a self-report measure of stress). This segment of the study will be exploratory in that types of stressful behaviours will be obtained from teachers. In addition, as teacher behaviours tend to affect student behaviours, the second purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between teacher behaviours and frequencies of stressful student behaviours.

In particular, investigating the contributors to teacher stress and the contributors to stressful student behaviours is important today because much of the past literature focusing on teacher stress has lacked strong empirical grounding. According to Byrne (1994), “although the body of teacher burnout literature is vast, there is a paucity of systematic empirical research on the topic, most studies have been of anecdotal nature” (p. 651). Though qualitative research can be helpful for conducting exploratory studies about the types of stressors teachers encounter, a lack of quantitative research can make it difficult to derive consistent patterns and results about the causes and consequences of teacher stress.

In addition, nearly all of the research conducted on teacher stress has involved too great a dependence on self-report measures as instruments of data collection. There has often been a lack of independence in measuring stress and the variables theorized to affect it (Schonfeld, 1990). If variables are all measured by self-report, it is likely that method variance will artificially inflate the relationships among them, and that responses will be influenced by social desirability.

Thus, overall, this study aims to add to the teacher stress literature by (1) obtaining information about stressful student behaviours from teachers themselves rather than imposing a preconceived framework about the types of behaviours teachers should experience as stressful, (2) collecting quantitative information in addition to qualitative data so frequencies of stressful student behaviours and teacher behaviours can be linked to specific levels of teacher stress and student behaviours, respectively, and (3) obtaining behavioural observations from multiple raters in order to minimize self-report biases.

For several reasons, this research will focus specifically on secondary level students and their teachers. First, studies have shown that these teachers may experience the greatest stress on the job. Several researchers have found that high school teachers report higher levels of burnout than elementary school teachers, especially with regard to reduced personal accomplishment (Anderson & Iwanicki, 1984; Schwab & Iwanicki, 1982).

Second, individuals working at schools with higher grade levels tend to report more frequent student behaviour problems (National Institute of Education, 1977). In comparing elementary and high school teachers’ rank orderings of factors perceived to contribute most to work stress, secondary school teachers ranked student attitudes and behaviour second, whereas elementary school teachers did not include this in their top 10 factors (Byrne, 1991).

Third, high school teachers may experience the most challenging types of student behaviours on the job. According to Caspari (1976), children with behavioural problems may be hyperactive in grade school, but in secondary school, these same children would be more likely to engage in more severely negative behaviours, such as damaging school property, yelling at teachers, or hitting other students. In summary, since it is likely that secondary teachers’ perceptions of stress will be more affected by student behaviours, this study focused on these teachers in particular.

Kyriacou and Sutcliffe (1978) define teacher stress as the situation where “a response syndrome of negative affects (such as anger or depression) results from the teacher's job and is mediated by an appraisal of threat to the teacher's self-esteem or well-being and by coping mechanisms activated to reduce the perceived threat” (p. 159). Thus, teacher subjective stress is neither a stimulus nor a response, but the situation that arises when negative affect results from the teacher's job. This definition is predicated on the belief that stress should be measured subjectively because experiencing negative affect is an integral part to experiencing work stress.

Student behaviour has always been one of the largest contributors to secondary teacher stress. Innes and Kitto (1989) had 84 Australian secondary school teachers review a list of potential sources of stress (adapted from Kyriacou & Sutcliffe, 1978), including administrative work, inadequate pay, and maintaining class discipline. Then, they were asked to indicate if each represented a work characteristic they considered stressful. The most frequently mentioned source of stress was student misbehaviour followed by time pressures and a poor work environment.

More recent studies have shown that student behaviour may be becoming an even stronger contributor to teacher stress. Byrne (1991) had 138 Canadian secondary school instructors complete open-ended surveys in which they were asked to list work-related causes of stress. The second most common response was “student attitudes and behaviours” after “time constraints” (p. 204).

In addition, Punch and Tuettemann (1990) surveyed 574 Australian secondary school teachers about the types of conditions that create stress (i.e., stressors) and the types of conditions that help alleviate stress (i.e., destressors). These stressors and destressors were then correlated with scores on the General Health Questionnaire (a measure of psychological distress). Student misbehaviour correlated strongly with GHQ scores (r=.15, p<.01) indicating that problem student behaviours were contributing to the psychological distress of the teachers. Thus, overall, student misbehaviour has shown to be a strong contributor to secondary teacher stress.

Though many studies have revealed that student behaviours, student discipline, and student unruliness in general are frequent contributors to teacher stress, little research has focused more specifically on the types of student behaviours that teachers regard as stress inducing. Categories of student behaviours that have been shown to be related to teacher stress are: indolence, disrespect for the teacher, and noisiness.

Behaviours reflecting student indolence or lack of effort are often regarded by teachers as stressful. Blasé (1986) revealed student indolence to be a contributor to teacher stress. He asked high school teachers open-ended questions about the sources of their work stress. After collecting this qualitative data, he grouped the responses together based on apparent similarity, and labelled one of the categories “student apathy.” Examples of student behaviours subsumed under this category were: “do not bother to hand in papers at all,” “rarely respond to questions,” and “just sit there with a bored, blank expression on their faces” (p. 18). These behaviours reflect a lack of effort on the part of students to participate in the lesson or do their work.

Another study which revealed students’ lack of effort as a contributor to teacher stress was conducted by Payne and Furnham (1987). Four hundred and forty-four secondary school teachers in Barbados completed a new 36-item sources of teacher stress survey in which they ranked whether or not various sources caused them little or great amounts of stress. The authors then factor analysed the data and labelled the third largest factor student behaviour. Many of the responses loading significantly on this factor pertained to student indolence, including poor work orientation and poor student motivation.

In addition to student indolence, student behaviours reflecting a lack of respect for the teacher are likely to contribute strongly to teacher stress. In a study in which many different possible sources of stress were correlated with self-reported stress for 257 secondary level British schoolteachers (Kyriacou & Sutcliffe, 1978), the source that was most strongly associated with stress was students’ lack of acceptance of instructors’ authority (r=.52). In addition, student rudeness correlated strongly with teacher stress (r=.42).

Another study, conducted by Shaw, Keiper, and Flaherty (1985), also revealed students’ lack of respect for the teacher to be strongly associated with teacher stress. In particular, the authors found that verbal abuse and violence directed toward the teacher were reported by teachers to be extremely stressful. The Teaching Events Stress Inventory (TESI) was administered to 399 elementary, middle, and high school teachers, in which they had to rank order stress levels caused by 33 different events. The third most stressful event was “threatened with personal injury,” while the tenth most stressful event was “target of verbal abuse” (p. 75).

In addition to student indolence and behaviours reflecting a lack of respect for the teacher, students’ high levels of classroom noisiness contribute positively to teachers’ reported stress. In the study mentioned previously in which many different possible sources of stress were related to self-reported stress for 257 British school teachers (Kyriacou & Sutcliffe, 1978), two of the variables that correlated most strongly with teacher stress were high noise level (r=.45) and noisy students (r=.43).

Overall, it is likely that the student behaviours that are most disruptive to class activities (i.e., lack of effort and noisiness) and those that are disrespectful and/or violent toward the teacher may be the behaviours that are the most stressful for teachers to experience. This study will attempt to reveal whether or not these types of behaviours or other types (as suggested by teachers themselves) are strongly associated with teacher stress.

Though the antecedents of stressful student behaviours are numerous (e.g., parental upbringing, peer influences, low self-esteem, etc.), teachers can and do affect how students behave in the classroom. However, teachers may be unwilling to admit that their actions may influence pupil behaviour (Guttmann, 1982). Thus, it may be helpful to objectively determine whether or not teacher behaviours are influencing problem student behaviours and then investigate whether or not these student misbehaviours are related to teacher stress.

Very little research has focused on how secondary school teacher behaviours may affect stressful student behaviours. However, there are several themes within the teacher/student interaction literature that may be useful in predicting how teacher behaviours may influence stressful student behaviours. First, when teachers “behave” by displaying a positive attitude toward students and emotionally supporting them, students may tend to misbehave less. Bru, Stephens, and Torsheim (2002) conducted a study in which sixth and ninth grade students completed surveys about the teachers’ classroom management (e.g., levels of emotional support, academic support, monitoring, and allowance of student participation) and their own misbehaviour. The authors found that students’ perceptions of teachers’ emotional support showed the strongest negative association with self-reported misbehaviour. As teachers’ display of emotional support toward students increased, students reported that they engaged in less off-task behaviour and less teacher-directed antagonistic behaviour. Thus, it is likely that teachers who model positive, supportive behaviour toward students, and abide by rules they impose on students will elicit fewer stressful student behaviours.

Another finding that may elucidate how teacher behaviours affect stressful student behaviours is the fact that student misbehaviour is often strongly linked to student academic achievement for students at many different levels (Scott, Nelson, & Liaupsin, 2001; Weishew & Peng, 1993). Students who are not experiencing academic success are likely to become frustrated and may channel this aggression into negative behaviours aimed at the class or the teacher. In addition, students who are bored in class may be likely to engage in misbehaviour because they are not being stimulated enough or do not enjoy learning about the material (Moles, 1990). Thus, teachers may need to display behaviours that encourage student success and that stimulate students’ academic minds in order to prevent student misbehaviour.

A few studies that have investigated how teachers attempt to create order in the classroom have shown that, to prevent student misbehaviour, teachers need to be clear about their expectations for student behaviour, explain the rules explicitly, and be consistent about enforcing consequences when rules are broken. For example, past research has shown that the level of order created during the first few days of the school year reliably predicted the degree of student misbehaviour throughout the rest of the year (Emmer, Evertson, & Anderson, 1980). In conclusion, teacher behaviours are likely to influence student behaviours. Teachers who do not help students succeed or stimulate them academically are not clear about expectations for behaviour and do not provide meaningful consequences when rules are broken are likely to elicit more frequent stressful student behaviours.

Section snippets

Objectives

The purpose of this study was to collect qualitative data pertaining to which types of student behaviours cause teachers stress and which types of teacher behaviours tend to elicit these stressful student behaviours. These behaviours were then used to create two separate questionnaires: (1) a survey of stressful student behaviours and (2) a survey of teacher behaviours eliciting stressful student behaviours, both of which were incorporated in Study 2.

Participants

Participants were high school teachers at

Objectives

The purpose of this study was to validate the teacher behaviour and stressful student behaviour questionnaires developed in Study 1 by correlating the stressful student behaviour survey results with scores on the perceived stress survey and correlating the teacher behaviour survey results with the stressful student behaviour survey results. This study was conducted to ensure the two questionnaires were effectively measuring the constructs of interest.

Participants

Participants were high school teachers from

Objectives

In Studies 1 and 2, instruments were created and validated to use as data collection instruments in this study (Study 3). The objectives of this study were to confirm the relationships between stressful student behaviours and teacher stress, and the relationships between teacher behaviours and stressful student behaviours, using data collected from multiple raters.

Participants

Participants included both student teachers enrolled in teacher credential programs at 10 universities in Minnesota and California,

Reliabilities of secondary teacher behaviour and student behaviour ratings

The overall average correlation between ratings of teacher behaviour obtained from student teachers and ratings obtained from their cooperating teachers was .25 (p<.05). In regard to the student behaviour ratings, the average correlation between ratings of student behaviour obtained from student teachers and ratings obtained from their cooperating teachers was .17 (p>.05).

One possible reason why the teacher behaviour ratings from student teachers and the ratings from cooperating teachers did

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      Talking out of turn is the most frequent student misbehavior in the classroom and disrupts the lesson (Clunies-Ross et al., 2008; Infantino & Little, 2005; Jones et al., 1995; Kyriacou & Martin, 2010), whereas not completing the homework assignment might also occur frequently, particularly among male students (Hong et al., 2011), but it does not directly disturb the flow of the lesson but instead hinders a student’s learning process (Sun & Shek, 2013). Although managing such minor misbehavior can also be of concern for teachers and can increase teacher stress (Clunies-Ross et al., 2008; Kokkinos, 2007), more severe student misbehavior such as aggression against the teacher increases stress and feelings of burnout even more (Geving, 2007; McMahon et al., 2014). Uncertain teacher behavior seems to increase students’ aggression against the teacher (Moon & McCluskey, 2020).

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