The End of Leisure: Are Preferred Leisure Activities Contraindicated for Education-Related Stress/Anxiety Reduction?

Abstract

Teacher stress is an increasing problem not only for practicing teachers but for student teachers as well. It leads to professional teachers leaving the profession, and future teachers enduring much stress and anxiety throughout teacher education programs. To further explore effects of stress, teacher candidates were surveyed with respect to (1) the role of their leisure preferences and (2) their stress levels related to Pedagogy, Evaluation, Class Management, and Interpersonal Relations. In Study One (n=216), a profile of leisure preferences was comprised, and findings from the relationship between leisure preferences and teaching anxieties contributed to a profile to explore reduced anxiety over time. A follow-up investigation (Study Two,n=136) tested the discriminatory potential of these leisure profile variables to separate those who showed less anxiety over time from those who regressed. Surprisingly, increased anxiety was associated with higher leisure in Sports, Adventure, Travel, and Exotica and with non-Science majors, Human Kinesiology majors, and Males. Some leisure preferences appear to be counterintuitive, given commonsense notions of the value of leisure. A Leisure Preferences Profile serves to facilitate discrimination between groups (improvement in anxiety levels versus no improvement) with respect to Pedagogical and Evaluation anxiety. A Composite Profile suggests that Leisure preferences related to Sports, Adventure, and Exotica are counterproductive in reducing stress related to Pedagogy. Implications are discussed.