Stress: Perceptions of Environmental Characteristics and Events

Abstract

Two groups of early childhood special educators (N = 325) were surveyed with regard to their perceived levels of stress in relation to 25 selected environmental characteristics and events. The results indicated that both groups associated the highest levels of stress with salary and benefits, time management, level of family support, multiple responsibilities, interagency support, and attitudes toward their programs. The lowest levels of stress were associated with availability of student evaluation data, the evaluator's visit, staff philosophies, team membership, and student absenteeism. Application of the Mann-Whitney U-Test for independent samples indicated no significant difference (P > .05) between the ranked measures for the two groups.