Stress, health and leisure satisfaction: the case of teachers

Suggests that although stress research has burgeoned in recent years, little attention has been paid to the relationship between leisure satisfaction, work stress and psychological wellbeing. Presents data from secondary school teachers in a major UK city. A validated teacher stress measure comprising role‐related, task‐based, and environmental stress was used to tap the nature and prevalence of teacher stress. Results showed that overall teacher stress arose from five main areas: role‐related issues (e.g. overload, conflict, ambiguity); general job satisfaction; life satisfaction; supervisory support; and student discipline problems. A positive association was found between the amount of work stress reported and poor psychological health as measured by the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). While no strong relationship was found between leisure satisfaction and stress, overall leisure satisfaction was significantly correlated with life satisfaction. The findings provide evidence that relaxational leisure satisfaction could well be a moderator of occupational stress for some teachers.