Job stress in physical education teachers: A qualitative study

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the perception of Physical Education (here in after PE) teachers about potential triggers of job stress in their professional life. The study was based upon a qualitative design carried out through semi-structured interviews subject to a prior piloting process. 12 PE teachers, who were incidentally selected based on an inclusion criteria by gender (women and men), stage (primary and secondary) and work experience (three to 30 years), participated in the present study. To carry out the content analysis of the interviews, a 29-category-system was created, organized in three dimensions divided by source of the stressors: educational administration, school center and classroom. All interviews were analyzed by at least two investigators. The study was approved by the ethics committee of the research team's university. The results detail and differentiate four types of stressors according to their prevalence: high, medium, low and none. These findings are discussed and exemplified through testimonies that help understand the perception of physical education teachers about their job stress. Likewise, it is concluded that the classroom context is the one that generates the most stress triggers. Finally, these findings suggest that PE teachers are exposed to specific job stressors during their professional performance.