Work Stress among Secondary School Teachers in Ikorodu Area of Lagos State
Abstract
The study investigated work stress among secondary school teachers in Ikorodu, Lagos State. To guide the study, three research questions were raised. One was answered and two were hypothesized and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised nine hundred and fourteen (914) Senior Secondary School teachers in both government and private schools in Ikorodu, Lagos State, Nigeria. The sample size of the study comprised 229 Senior Secondary School teachers, representing 25% of the total population of the Senior Secondary School teachers in Ikorodu, Lagos State. The simple random technique was adopted to select the respondents. The instrument for data collection for this study was a structured questionnaire. The internal consistency reliability of the instruments was conducted using 20 teachers who were not part of the actual study. The data obtained were analysed using Cronbach Alpha Statistics, and a reliability co-efficient of 0.73 was obtained. The instrument was administered to the respondents and the data collected were analysed using mean (x) and standard deviation (SD) statistical tool to answer the research question. The decision rule was based on any calculated mean (x) equal or greater than 2.50 which was regarded as highly stressed while values within the range of 1.50 – 2.49 were regarded as stressed, 0.50 – 1.49 were regarded as slightly stressed and 0.49 and below were regarded as not stressed. The hypotheses were tested using the t-test statistics. The study revealed that stress existed at a high level among Senior Secondary School teachers in Ikorodu Area of Lagos State. There was a significant difference in the level of work stress between male and female teachers in secondary schools in Ikorodu, Lagos State, with female teachers being more stressed. There was no significant difference in the level of work stress between private and public secondary school teachers in Ikorodu, Lagos State. It was recommended that appropriate workload levels should be established for teachers to enable them to perform optimally.
