SSR Inst. Int. J. Life Sci., 9(5): 3315-3322, September 2023

Comparative Study of Stress among Teachers Working in Government and Private High Schools of Vijayapura, Karnataka

Rajashekhargouda Hiregoudar¹*, Dileep S. Natekar²

¹Associate Prof., Dept. of Community Health Nursing, Shree B.V.V.S Sajjalashree Institute of Nursing Sciences, Bagalkot, India

²Principal, Dept. of Community Health Nursing, Shree B.V.V.S Sajjalashree institute of Nursing Sciences, Bagalkot, India

 

^*Address for Correspondence: Rajashekhargouda Hiregoudar, Associate Prof., Dept. of Community Health Nursing, Shree B.V.V.S Sajjalashree Institute of Nursing Sciences, Bagalkot, India

E-mail: rajashekhargouda72@gmail.com

 

ABSTRACT- Background: Teaching is the most admired and respected profession in every part of the world but it has challenges that must be encountered to maintain its reputation. The study compares the stress stage between teachers working in government high schools and Private High schools in Vijayapura, Karnataka, India.

Methods: The participants were 100 teachers working in government high schools and 100 teachers working in private high schools in Vijayapura, Karnataka. Cohen s perceived stress scale assessed the data regarding stress levels and the participants' baseline data was assessed by a structured questionnaire prepared by the researcher.

Results: Most government, high school teachers and private high school teachers were above 45. Most teachers were males, 66% of private school teachers, whereas post-graduates, 56% of government teachers and 53% of private teachers had more than 10 years of experience. A significant difference was found in the stress level among teachers working in government and private high schools. The findings suggest that permanent employment and low workload reduced stress levels among high school teachers while higher positions i.e. headmaster and deputy headmaster and lower salaries have increased stress levels.

Conclusion: Stress is prevalent in teachers of government high schools and private high schools. There is a need for some strategies that can help teachers prevent stress in them.

Key words: Government, High school, Private, Permanent employment, Stress, Teachers

 

INTRODUCTION- Every occupation portrays its challenges. Occupational stress has been foremost among risk factors, increasing cardiovascular disease incidence ^[1,2]. Teaching is the most noble and respected profession in every part of the world. Teachers work to mold their pupils' behavior and prepare them to face the challenges in their careers ^[3].

The teachers working in Government high schools in India are said to have more facilities and benefits than teachers working in private high schools. But in turn, the teachers in government schools have many obligations other than teaching, compared to private high school teachers. Hence, both groups encounter occupational challenges that could provoke stress. Many people handle stressful situations calmly with their experience, but some fail to keep up to date with professional challenges and develop stress ^[4].

In the field of education, the teacher s role is very significant. They are the ultimate agent who gives up the knowledge, builds the schedule to choose reading materials, play the role of a subject expert to assess the learning outcome and support students in overcoming their struggle and individual difficulties ^[5].

School teacher credibility is essential because the credibility of all school teachers is the life of all academic institutions since the teacher is the education is the most esteemed asset of the country that is students. Campbell describes teacher influence in the classroom by teaching methods and anticipates teachers organizing the classroom and using classroom assets on students achievements. A teacher s efficiency thus has more influence on students learning than any other factors under the control of the school system, as well as class size and school size. Teachers are the utmost capable persons to initiate standards in school teaching. As well, as the level of fulfillment in the job is very significant for teachers to make efficient learning and bring excellence in school teaching, the progress of some entity of education builds upon the job fulfillment of teachers ^[6].

A teacher cannot make up a feasible outcome i.e. strength in schooling and teaching occupation to procure people's wants and live up to community Assumptions until a teacher obtains a blissful job. To be an excellent teacher, having the essential familiarity with the subject matter you will teach is inadequate. The individual has to know accurately what role a teacher wants to play in making the life of a personal. Apart from his academic qualifications, his character includes a set in creating one's outstanding teacher. The teaching profession needs loyalty and tolerance. There are several characteristics that a teacher desires to have, for example good and charming personality, the right manner towards education, knowledge of teaching skills, familiarity with child psychology and sound mental health ^[7].

Health is one of the most significant phases involving many education methods. When we say health, it does not imply physical and psychological health. The intellectual health of a teacher is very significant in the process of education as the teacher can do so only when he has stable mental health that promotes the protection of physical health, feelings, emotion, devotion, and intention in one as well as the ability to face and agree to the reality of life. Some certain facts are that social forces are always working and changing, and our mental setting is also moving and changing in various aspects ^[8]. As such, mental health is an activity that requires cooperation, adaptation, growth and progress.

Consequently, some psychologists have defined mental health as the individual's capacity to balance personal and social. Others have defined mental health as such potential of making the outcome of assuming farm duties comparatively with one s capacity of finding satisfaction, success, and happiness in the achievement of everyday tasks, of living well with others and of showing socially kind behavior, by a mentally healthy person, people usually mean a person who has genetically efficiency or can carry on nicely in society or is of good morals ^[9]. The study aimed to compare the stress level among teachers working in government and Private High schools in Vijayapura, Karnataka.

 

MATERIALS AND METHODS- Study design- An observational study with a comparative design to compare teachers' stress working in government and private high schools. The data was collected from 06-08-2020 to 12-02-2021.

 

Setting- The study was conducted in 10 government high schools of Vijayapura, Karnataka state, India (Government High School, Number 10, Urdu Government High School, Ambedkar Government High School, Government High School-26, Government High School-24, Government High School-8, Government High School-9, Government High School-28) and 10 private high schools of Vijayapura (Kamala Devi Patil High School, Banjara High School, Ravindra High School, Shri Mahaveer High School, BLDEA S Girls High School, Excellent High School, Shantiniketan High School, St. Joseph High School, V.B. Darbar High School, Kalidas High School).

 

Participants- The study participants were teachers working in Government and Private high schools of Vijayapura for at least one year. The teachers between 25-60 years of age willing to participate in the study were included. The teachers, who are sick, on leave, and unavailable at the time of sample enrolment and data collection were excluded from the study.

 

Sample size calculation- The sample size was calculated using an online calculator from cliccalc.com. The incidence of stress among government high school teachers was 50%, whereas 70% among private high school teachers with a significance level of 5%, power of test 80% and beta=0.2. The enrollment ratio was 1:1. The calculated sample size was 91 for government and 91 for private school teachers. Considering the chances of missing or incorrect data, the researcher decided to enroll 10% extra number of subjects. Hence, the final sample size was 200: 100 government and 100 private high school teachers.

 

Selection of sample- The study included Sample 1: 100 teachers working in government high schools of Vijayapura and Sample 2: 100 teachers working in private high schools of Vijayapura. The researcher conveniently selected 10 government high schools and 10 private schools. Then, 10 teachers were selected randomly from each selected high school. The researcher visited the selected schools and obtained administrative permission. All the teachers were listed, including the headmaster/principal, and 10 teachers were randomly selected from each selected high school.

 

Variables- Study variable- Stress among teachers working in High schools is the outcome variable of the study.

 

Socio-Demographic variables- The baseline data of study subjects: age, gender, religion, type of family, marital status, number of dependents, co-curricular activities, educational status, designation, monthly income, type of employment, years of experience, and workload.

Data Source: The data was collected from teachers working in selected government and private high schools of Vijayapura.

 

Data Collection Instrument- Cohen s perceived stress scale was used to collect data regarding stress among high school teachers. It is an age-old instrument developed in the year 1983. It consists of 10 items. Each item questions the subject s feelings and thoughts experienced and their frequency during the previous month. The subject is asked to select among 5 options given against each question. The options are never, rarely, sometimes, fairly often and very often . The subjects were asked to read each item clearly and select the appropriate option fairly and quickly without counting the number of times they experienced that feeling.

 

Scoring and interpretation of Cohen s perceived stress scale- each item was scored from 0 to 4 . Never =0 , Almost never =1 , Sometimes =2 , Fairly often =3 and Very often =4 . The scoring was reversely done for the items 4, 5, 7, and 8. The scoring for these items was 0 =4, 1 =3, 2 =2, 3 = 1, 4 =0. All the scores of ten itmes were added and total scores were obtained. The final scores were interpreted as; Low stress : Scores ranging from 0-13, Moderate stress : Scores ranging from 14-26 and severe stress : Scores ranging from 27-40.

2. Structured Questionnaire was used to assess the baseline information of the teachers. The items were open-ended for numerical responses like age, monthly income, and professional experience, and options for categorical responses like religion, educational status, marital status, type of family, designation etc.

 

Testing of the tool- To pretest the tool, the tools were administered to 10 teachers, 5 from government high schools and 5 from private high schools of Vijayapura. Experts in Community health nursing and Psychiatric Nursing confirmed the content validity of tools.

 

Translation of the research instruments- Both instruments were converted to local Kannada language by Kannada Linguistic expert. The tool was converted back to English by an English Linguistic expert to authenticate appropriate conversion.

 

Method of data collection- All the data was collected by self-report method. The researcher explained and gave the instruments to teachers and collected the data objectively to prevent bias in data.

 

Data collection process- Formal permission was obtained from Principals of selected high schools. The study was explained to all the teachers and teachers were enrolled in a sample considering inclusion and exclusion criteria. The data collection tools were given to selected teachers per their language convenience. They were told not to communicate with each other while answering the questions. Each teacher took around 15 to 20 minutes to answer all the questions. The filled tools were collected from respondents. The data was collected from 2021 Feb to 2021 Mar.

Statistical analysis- The obtained data was entered into a Microsoft Excel sheet and then transferred to SPSS package 18 for analysis. The categorical responses of socio-demographic profiles were coded with numerical codes. The numerical responses were entered, and frequency distribution tables were prepared to concise the data. Univariate analysis included frequency and percentage distribution, range, Arithmetic Mean, and standard deviation. The stress level was categorized into low, medium, and Severe . The normality of the data was assessed with the Shapro-Wilk test.

The stress level among government and private high school teachers was tested with Mann Whitney s U test. The association between stress level and socio-demographic factors was determined using the Chi-square and Fisher s exact probability tests.

 

Ethical approval- The ethical clearance certificate was obtained from the institutional ethical committee Al-Ameen Fathima College of Nursing Vijayapura, Karnataka, India.

 

Results- Socio-demographic characteristics- Most government (67%) and private (78%) high school teachers were below 45 years of age. Most government (65%) and private (73%) high school teachers were males, and the remaining 35% of government and 27% of private high school teachers were females. Most (57%) of the government high school teachers were graduates, as more (66%) of private high school teachers were post-graduates. 56% of government and 53% of private high school teachers had more than 10 years of teaching experience. 100% of the government high school teachers were permanent employees, 72% of the private high school teachers were temporary employees, 10% of government and 11% of private high school teachers were headteachers.

All the government high school teachers had more than Rs. 20000/- salary, but most private high school teachers (70%) had less than Rs. 10000/- salary. Only 16% of government high school teachers perceived a high workload, whereas 41% of private high school teachers perceived a high workload.

Table 1 depicts that most private high school teachers had severe stress, whereas 45% of the Government high school teachers experienced mild stress compared to private school teachers (28%). The mean stress among government high school s teachers was 16.22 6.7, whereas the mean stress score of private high school teachers was 18.62 6.7.

Difference between the stress level between government and private high school teachers: The data was assessed for normality and was found to be qualitative (Shapiro Wilk, p<0.0001).

 

Table 1: Level of stress among government and private high school teachers

F: Frequency, %: Percentage

 

Table 2 depicts the normality test. The Shapiro Wilk p-value=0.0001 shows that the data is not normally distributed. Hence, the Mann Whitney s test was used to compare the level of stress among teachers of Government and Private high schools.

 

Table 2: Normality assessment for stress scores

*Normally Distributed (p>0.05)

Table 3 depicts the comparison of stress scores among both groups. A significant difference was found between the mean stress scores of teachers of Government high schools and private high schools (p<0.003).

 

Table 3: Comparison of stress scores between government and private school high teachers

Category	Mean SD	Mann Whitney s U	p-Value
Government	16.22 6.7	3795	0.003*
Private	18.62 6.7

SD: Standard deviation, *p<0.05

 

Association between level of stress and socio-demographic factors: A significant association was found between the level of stress among high school teachers and their age (χ²=13.5, p<0.01), years of experience (χ²=1.26, p>0.001), designation (Fisher s p=0.0001), engagement in co-curricular activities (χ²=9.127, p<0.010), perceived workload (Fisher s p=0.0001). A significant association was found between the level of stress of teachers working in private high schools and age (χ²=6.8, p<0.031), type of employment (Fisher s=37.4, p<0.0001) designation ((Fisher s=12.7, p<0.011), monthly income (Fisher s=11.7, p<0.018). Table 4 depicts the predictors of stress among government and private high school teachers working in Private high schools. Permanent employment and designation were significantly associated with stress among high school teachers.

 

Table 4: Multiple Regression Model for the assessment of predictors of stress among both government and private high school teachers

***p<0.001, ^**p<0.01, ^*p<0.05

 

DISCUSSION- The study compared the stress levels among teachers working in government, high schools and private schools of Vijayapura district. To compare the stress level among teachers working in government, high schools and private high schools of Vijayapura district. The researcher selected 10 government high schools and 10 private high schools then 10 teachers are selected from each high school. Hence, there are two samples, with one hundred teachers from government high schools and one hundred teachers from private high schools in another sample.  Pal Uma Shankar conducted a similar study to compare the stress level between teachers working in government (50) and nongovernment (50) higher secondary schools of district Moga, Punjab.^[5] The data regarding stress level was assessed using Cohen s perceived stress scale and the researcher prepared a structured questionnaire to collect the baseline information regarding subjects.  and a structured questionnaire was prepared by the researcher to collect the baseline information regarding subjects. The stress level among both the groups was compared using man Whiitney s U test.

Most government high school teachers and private high school teachers were above 45 years of age; most of the teachers were males, 66% of private school teachers were post-graduates, 56% of government teachers and 53% of private teachers had more than 10 years of experience. Association between level of stress and socio-demographic factors: A significant association was found between the level of stress among high school teachers and their age (χ²=13.5, p<0.01), years of experience (χ²=1.26, p>0.001), designation (Fisher s p=0.0001), engagement in co-curricular activities (χ²=9.127, p<0.01), perceived workload (Fisher s p=0.0001). A significant association was found between the level of stress of teachers working in private high schools and age (χ2=6.8, p<0.031), type of employment (Fisher s=37.4, p<0.0001) designation (Fisher s=12.7, p<0.01), monthly income (Fisher s= 11.7, p<0.01).

The current study findings are promoted by the study directed by Deguchi et al. ^[11] through evaluating the sex distinction in the association between anticipated independent-level professional stress and unsafe alcohol use among Japanese teachers. Results recommended that male and female teachers' average ages ( standard deviation) were properly composed of 46.9 10.9 years and 39.9 12.3 years. Schoolteacher was the most general classification among male (48.7%) and female teachers (86.3%). Agai-Demjaha et al. ^[12] assess the Stress Causing Factors Among Teachers in Elementary Schools and Their Relationship with Demographic and Job Characteristics. Findings show that lower-category school teachers, female teachers, teachers for whom this is the primary job and teachers with university education recognize more often the requirement of control to make decisions as a very stressful aspect than the upper-grade school teachers, male teachers, teachers formerly employed in another workplace, and those with high education.

Teles et al. ^[13] assess the Perceived Stress and Indicators of Burnout in Portuguese Higher Education Institutions (HEI) Teachers. The outcome shows that university teachers over 60 reveal lower levels of anticipated stress, as did teachers with more teaching experience (30 years or more) and those with less skill (less than 10 years). Women show higher levels of perceived stress than men. Women also scored higher levels of expressive tiredness in the burnout dimensions. In contrast, teachers will less experience (under 10 years) and teachers with more experience (more than 30 years) had the lowest scores in this dimension.

Forcella, et al. assess Occupational stress, job insecurity and perception of the health status of Italian teachers with stable or temporary employment. These outcomes emphasize the difference in the awareness of job uncertainty between men and women. In particular, decision latitude (skill decision authority) plays an important role in men; temporary service is mainly associated with anxiety in men, while anxiety increases the awareness of poor health status, mostly in women ^[14,15].

Maria Kaczmarek et al. ^[16] school environment was a predictor of perceived stress among teachers. Radwan et al. ^[17], the predictor of stress was a shift from traditional learning to distance learning. Bogaert et al. ^[18] identified that higher levels of occupational physical activity and longer sitting time impacted teachers' health. Female teachers reported lesser positive health than male teachers, participation in leisure time physical activity was associated with improved physical health. Bodiwala and Chaithani ^[19] found a significant difference in occupational stress among private and government school teachers. The study found no difference in occupational stress among male and female teachers.

Drashti and Makwana ^[20] found that more perceived work pressure was associated with perceived stress among teachers. Government school teachers experience less stress compared to tuition-based schools. Bhattacharjee et al. ^[21] found that high-stress levels were associated with a job in private school, female gender, age between 50 to 60 years, Urban residence, and designation as headmaster and assistant headmaster. The study concluded that teaching is a stressful job. Brady and Wilson ^[22] conducted a study in England that suggests that private school teachers experienced less stress and parent's concern was associated with stress levels. A study by Wettstien et al. ^[23] suggests that teachers experience more work-related stress than other professions. Pscycho-pathological disorders were found to be associated with stress among teachers. Pal ^[24] conducted a study comparing the stress levels among teachers of private and government schools with two samples of 30 teachers from private schools and 30 from government schools. Kabito et al. ^[25] conducted a study in Ethiopia and found high stress among teachers. The prevalence of perceived stress among teachers was 58.2%. Teaching experience of less than 5 years, job demand, and level of education were significantly associated with stress among teachers.

 

CONCLUSIONS- There is a significant difference in the stress levels among teachers working in governments and private high schools. The findings suggest that permanent employment and low workload reduced stress levels among high school teachers while higher positions like. Headmaster and deputy headteachers and lower salaries have increased stress levels. Regression model clearly shows that private school teachers have experienced greater stress.

The study recommends adopting regular measures in high schools to encourage the development of coping strategies among teachers. More concern should be laid on psychological health and the level of satisfaction of the teachers will impact the children studying under them. More research studies must be conducted to find the interventions that can improve the coping strategies among high school teachers and prevent stress among them.

 

CONTRIBUTION OF AUTHORS

Research concept- Rajashekargouda Hiregoudar and Dr. Deelip S Natekar

Research design- Rajashekargouda Hiregoudar and Dr. Deelip S Natekar

Supervision- Rajashekargouda Hiregoudar and Dr. Deelip S Natekar

Materials- Rajashekargouda Hiregoudar and Dr. Deelip S Natekar

Data collection- Rajashekargouda Hiregoudar and Dr. Deelip S Natekar

Data analysis and Interpretation- Rajashekargouda Hiregoudar and Dr. Deelip S Natekar

Literature search- Rajashekargouda Hiregoudar and Dr. Deelip S Natekar

Writing article- Rajashekargouda Hiregoudar and Dr. Deelip S Natekar

Critical review- Rajashekargouda Hiregoudar and Dr. Deelip S Natekar

Editing- Rajashekargouda Hiregoudar and Dr. Deelip S Natekar

Final approval- Rajashekargouda Hiregoudar and Dr. Deelip S Natekar

 

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