Assessing Stress among Public School Principals in British Columbia

Abstract

643 public school principals in British Columbia, Canada responded to a survey on administrative stress. The findings show that stress is a serious concern for these administrators. In contrast to other studies of administrative stress, “administering the negotiated contract” was a source of stress uniquely important to school principals in British Columbia. A multivariate analysis indicated that principals who had greater total scores on the measure of administrative stress perceived that administrative isolation was a problem for them, reported greater stress due to the job, had seriously considered leaving school administration, felt that principals were under greater stress than other members of their community and reported that they had to cope with scarce or limited resources at their schools.