Profiles of middle school teacher stress and coping: Concurrent and prospective correlates.

This study examined the stress and coping patterns of middle school teachers. A final teacher sample of 102 and student sample of 1450 agreed to participate in the study. We conducted a latent profile analysis of the teachers' self-reported levels of stress and coping at the beginning of the school year and used the resulting profiles to predict teacher practices and student outcomes over time. Nearly all teachers were characterized by high stress and high coping (66%) or high stress and low coping (28%). Based on concurrent ratings and observations, the High Stress/Low Coping profile had higher burnout and lower self-efficacy, higher rates of observed reprimands, and higher student-reported depression in comparison to the other classes. The most adaptive profile, Low Stress/High Coping (6% of sample), had lower burnout, greater parent involvement and higher student prosocial skills in comparison to the other groups. Profiles also predicted the maintenance of most of these effects and the increase of some effects over the school year. Examining stress and coping in combination can inform efforts to improve teacher well-being and have a positive influence on student learning environments.

Advances in understanding and intervening in teacher stress and coping: The Coping-Competence-Context Theory.

Teacher stress and burnout are associated with many adverse outcomes for teachers, students, and the educational system. This paper describes the Coping-Competence-Context (3C) Theory of Teacher Stress. The theory is based on empirical research on teacher stress and coping highlighted within this special issue and attempts to more explicitly highlight three critical interconnected pathways to teacher stress development and intervention. The 3C model also highlights why teacher stress is important and should be the topic of future inquiry by showing clear links between teacher stress and adverse student and teacher outcomes. Lastly, this paper provides guidance for leverage points to intervene and describes a future research agenda in three domains: measurement, conceptual, and intervention issues and challenges.

Does Child Likeability Mediate the Link Between Academic Competence and Depressive Symptoms in Early Elementary School?

The present study investigated the role of teacher-rated likeability as a mediator of the relation between low academic competence and depressive symptoms in elementary-aged children. Analyses focused on a sample of children at risk for child maltreatment living in Hawaii (n = 380). Structural equation modeling supported the hypothesized negative relations between academic competence in first grade and depressive symptoms in third grade controlling for correlated constructs (e.g., baseline social avoidance, parenting stress, externalizing problems, and internalizing symptoms). Teacher-rated likeability in second grade negatively mediated the effect of academic competence on depressive symptoms. Implications for understanding the role of early academic skill deficits and social judgments on risk for depressive symptoms as well as recommendations for interventions and prevention strategies are discussed.

Single-item teacher stress and coping measures: Concurrent and predictive validity and sensitivity to change.

This study examined the concurrent and predictive validity of single-item scales for assessing teacher stress and coping. Correlations between the stress and coping items and present and end-of-year teacher-reported burnout and self-efficacy generally aligned with hypotheses, with stronger associations between coping and burnout and self-efficacy in comparison to the associations between stress and burnout and self-efficacy. Stress and coping items also predicted concurrent and future emotional exhaustion controlling for covariates; however, only coping consistently predicted additional variance in future emotional exhaustion with both stress and coping items in the model. Further, the coping item, not the stress item, demonstrated sensitivity to detect intervention effects; that is, teachers randomly assigned to receive a classroom management intervention (the Incredible Years Teacher Classroom Management program) had significantly higher coping scores compared to a wait-list comparison group. The results of this study provide support for the continued use of single-item stress and coping measures of teacher well-being, and areas for further research and potential use of these measures are discussed.