Coping with stress in the principalship

Abstract

School principals face very busy and highly unpredictable work days with many individuals and groups competing for their time. Roberson and Matthews write that many principals are overworked, constantly under fire, and unappreciated [1]. Fallon states that confrontation, conflict, and compromise are constants which principals face on a daily basis [2]. Gmelch asserts that principals are becoming increasingly faced with more pressure, more aggression, more change, and more conflict than ever before [3]. In Canada, recent newspaper reports indicate that many school administrators are "overburdened", have "tough demanding jobs that are getting tougher all the time"[4] and are "severely stressed" [5]. Further, several Canadian school districts have reported that a substantial number of school administrators have had to take medical leave due to stress-related illnesses. In one large urban school district it was reported that four school principals had suffered heart attacks and that three of the men had died [6].Stress has been identified as a serious disabling phenomenon that adversely affects the health and the lifestyle of individuals [7][8][9][10][11], and in some cases, as reported above, to death. Hence, school administrator "wellness" and "coping" programmes are being developed by school districts and principals' associations to address the problem of administrative stress. Since stress cannot be avoided, identification of effective coping strategies may provide school principals with the tools which can be used to reduce the amount of stress from the environment and to moderate the effect of stress on the individual.

Superintendent Stress and Superintendent Health: A National Study

“…A review of some of his studies explore the topics of school administrator stress (Gmelch & Swent, 1984), coping mechanisms (Gmelch & Chan, 1982), and creation of a coping taxonomy in response to workplace stress (Gmelch, 1988). Based on his pioneering work, a large number of studies on stress in the principalship have followed over the years, in dissertations (Finaldi, 1983;Hall, 2007;Harrison, 1991;Horgen, 1991;Romney, 2012;Welmers, 2005), journal articles (Allison, 1997;Carr, 1994;Cushing, Kerrins, & Johnstone, 2003;Goodwin, Cunningham, & Childress, 2003;Whitaker, 1996) and books (Brock & Grady, 2002;Brock & Grady, 2004;Queen & Queen, 2005).In addition, a large body of research on principal stress has focused specifically on the unique challenges of female principals as they navigate the workplace (Buss, 2008;Goeller, 1995;Lucas, 2003;Shakeshaft, Nowell, & Perry, 1991;Smulyan, 2000).…”

A Study on Stress Level and Coping Strategic Among Primary Tamil School Teachers

“…Research done almost two decades ago by Allison (1997) looked at the relationship between different coping preferences and stress levels of school principals in Canada. The results from the study found that suitable coping strategies lead to less stress experience.…”

An empirical study on managing stress in guided schools to increase educational skills

“…Roesch (1979) preformed a comprehensive study on relationship between degree of stress and coping preferences among elementary school principals. Allison (1997) identified the most common coping techniques utilized by public school principals to ameliorate the effects of stress and clustered these coping techniques into interpretable and meaningful coping categories. He determined whether there were any differences in the number of coping techniques most frequently utilized by principals or not.…”