Self-Reported Job Stress and Personality in Teachers of Students with Emotional or Behavioral Disorders

Abstract

This study examined self-reported stressors for teachers of students with emotional or behavioral disorders (E/BD) using a questionnaire developed specifically for the study. The study examined (a) the relationship between reported stressors and reported willingness to leave an E/BD teaching position, (b) the relationship between reported stressors and three personality traits from the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised (EPQ-R), and (c) the relationship between the Eysenck personality traits and E/BD teacher-reported injury by students. One expected result was that E/BD teachers reporting the largest number of stressors indicated a greater willingness to leave an E/BD teaching position than their peers with fewer stressors. Importantly, teachers who reported low stress scored significantly lower than teachers who reported high stress on the Psychoticism (P) and Neuroticism (N) scales, but not on the Extroversion (E) scale on the EPQ-R. Teachers who reported low stress were significantly below the normal range for the N scale. Of the sample studied, 19% reported being injured by a student within the past 12 months, a significant increase above those reporting such occurrences in previous studies on teacher injury. Moreover, teachers who had been injured by a student scored significantly higher on Eysenck's P scale than did noninjured teachers, which suggests that such teachers may interact with students in a manner that puts them at greater risk for being injured. The results are discussed, and additional research is suggested.