Chapter 14: A Mixed Methods Study of the Responses to Two Open-Ended Questions Regarding Stress in the Classroom From A Sample of Italian Teachers

In this chapter, we discuss our effort to assess the validity of constructs underlying the Utrecht Challenging Student Questionnaire for Teachers (UC-SQT) (Everaert, this volume) through triangulation of qualitative and quantitative data from a sample of Italian teachers (N = 518). Answers given to open-ended questions P2AQ01 “Describe the behavior of the student you find most challenging in your class” and P2AQ02 “Why is this behavior the most challenging for you?” were submitted to correspondence analysis of cooccurrences. Results proved to be easily readable and interpretable within the theoretical framework on which the UCSQT is based. Qualitative data also accurately reflected correlations among quantitative data that were peculiar to the Italian sample used in the study. Our findings provide evidence for the overall validity of the theoretical constructs.