Chapter 7: Stress in the Student-Teacher Relationship in Dutch Schools: A Replication Study of Greene, Abidin, and Kmetz’s Index of Teaching Stress (ITS)

Teachers vary widely in their responses to children who present classroom difficulties. Consistent with goodness-of-fit theory challenging students might evoke different levels of subjectively experienced stress in different teachers. In the first replication study, Greene, Abidin, and Kmetz’s Index of Teaching Stress (ITS) was used to measure perceived stress in Dutch classrooms (N = 320). Making use of Multiple Group Method (MGM), a number of general theoretical underpinnings of ITS are confirmed. At the same time some methodological problems showed up. We have drawn another, second sample (N =136) to study in detail the relation between prevalence of student behavior and concomitant teacher stress. While we endorse ITS with respect to behaviorally challenging students, some suggestions are made to improve the general applicability of the instrument.