Sources of Stress, Coping Strategies with Stress and Job Satisfaction of Teachers in Art Schools

Abstract

Researches on teachers' stress have shown that stress is an important factor upon which educational process depends (Kyriacou, 2001). In this article teachers in art schools in the Republic of Croatia (N=148) were studied. The aim of this article is to determine which are the sources of stress in teachers at elementary music and dancing schools. Besides, one of  the problems is to observe ways of teachers' coping with stress as well as correlation with job satisfaction of teachers in art schools.

Teachers in art schools are mostly satisfied with their work despite the fact that it is a very stressful profession. Sources of stress of teachers in art schools are to some extent similar to sources of stress of the past researches on teachers. Teachers mostly use coping strategies with stress directed to the problem such as problem solving. A positive correlation of positive coping strategies with stress and job satisfaction was also noticed and the highest correlation shows usage of positive coping strategies with stress. A negative correlation of strategies directed to emotions and job satisfaction such as evasion of coping with problem was also observed. The results refer to particularities of art education and encourage for further researches.

Key words: coping strategies; job satisfaction; sources of stress; teachers in art fields.