Experience of stress and job satisfactionamong government and private elementaryschool teachers

Abstract

Changes in the teaching methods of students, especially during the COVID-19 crisis phase and the endemic transition,caused increased teacher stress. Therefore, this study examines the relationship between teacher stress and jobsatisfaction among government and private elementary school teachers. This study used a cross-sectional surveydesign in which elementary school teachers in Gombak were selected by convenience sampling. One hundred andfifty elementary school teachers participated in this study, including 75 government and 75 private elementary schoolteachers. The online questionnaire consists of the Teacher Stress Inventory (TSI) and the Short-Form MinnesotaQuestionnaire (MSQ). Descriptive analysis, Pearson’s correlation, and the independent t-test were used to find therelationship between teacher stress and job satisfaction and the difference between teacher stress and job satisfactionbetween government and private elementary school teachers. Findings revealed a negative correlation between teacherstress and job satisfaction [r(148)= -0.23, p = 0.005]. Furthermore, there is a significant difference in teacher stressand job satisfaction between government and private elementary school teachers [t(148) = 2.50, p = 0.014]. Privateschool teachers have been found to have higher teacher stress and job satisfaction than government school teachers.Although, with some limitations, the present study has contributed to existing knowledge and literature identifying whyteachers’ well-being needs greater attention, as well as alarming the management of both private and governmentschools, providing avenues to reduce the stress level among teachers in promoting job satisfaction and enhancingteaching effectiveness.

Keywords

• elementary school teachers
• job satisfaction
• teacher stress