Factors affecting teachers' stress levels in the Botha-Bothe district of Lesotho

[摘要] English: Stress is attributed to be an interference that disturbs a person's mental and physicalwell-being. Stress results have negative effects: physically (headaches), behaviourally(overreacting), emotionally (fatigue) and mentally (forgetfulness).This study was undertaken to identify whether factors causing stress, such asrole conflict, role overload, role insufficiency, role ambiguity, responsibility and physicalenvironment are prevalent amongst teachers in the Botha-Bothe district of Lesotho.In establishing this, a standardized occupational stress inventory (OS!), measuringall these factors, was administered in the named area.The aim of this study was to review the related local and international literatureon stress regarding factors such as causes, effects and coping strategies, to do anempirical study, to analyse and interpret the data, to make suggestions to the governmentof Lesotho based on the findings in the study. Both a null and an alternative hypothesiswere stated for this study. Ho: Teachers in Lesotho do not have stress andthere are no factors causing stress amongst them. HI: Teachers in Lesotho sufferfrom stress and there are factors, effects and coping strategies.Because a study of this nature has never been undertaken in Lesotho and becausethe targeted clientele was government registered secondary and high schools ofBotha-Bothe district of Lesotho, use was made of a standardised test which has a highvalidity and reliability. The occupational stress inventory (OS!) was chosen. The OSIwas developed for two reasons: To develop generic measures of occupational stressorsthat would apply across different occupational levels of the environment and toprovide measures for an integrated theoretical model, linking sources of stress in the .work environment, the physiological strains experienced by individuals as a result ofwork stressors and the coping resources available to combat the effects of stressorsand alleviate stress. In order to substantiate and verify all the factors relating tostress, a comprehensive literature study on the phenomenon stress was undertaken.Relevant books, articles, journals and bulletins were consulted.The literature review gave a comprehensive picture of stress regarding stressin general, its effects and coping strategies. The empirical study concentrated onthree domains: the occupational stress domain (ORQ) was measured on a set of sixscales. The personal strain questionnaire (PSQ) and the personal resource questionnaire(PRQ) were both measured on four separate scales. The self-made questionnairewas also used to gather general information for individual respondents like post,sex, religion, level of teaching, race, qualifications, age, number of children of individualrespondents and experience. Administration was applied on government registered secondary and high schools of the Botha-Bothe district of Lesotho using randomsampling.Analysis and interpretation of data collected under the supervision of a registeredpsychologist was done through frequency distribution and analysis of variancethrough the computer section of the University of the Orange Free State. No stresswas found. Summary suggestions and conclusions constitute the fifth chapter.

[发布机构] University of the Free State