Occupational stress of teachers: biographical differences in a large school system

Presents the results of an analysis of questionnaire and interview data revealing significant differences in occupational stress between groups of public school teachers, in New South Wales, Australia. In particular, emphasizes the importance of differentiating between executive and classroom teachers, primary/infants and secondary teachers, teachers at different career stages and teachers in geographical locations, when planning to alleviate stress in the future. The fact that primary/infants teachers reported greater stress attributable to student misbehaviour than secondary teachers reinforces the need to distinguish between the perceived “objective strength” of a stressor and the degree of distress felt by a teacher.