Teachers' perception of social support from principals

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to examine factors affecting teachers' recognition of social support from their principal, and to investigate the effect of those factors on the teachers' stress responses. Public school teachers in Japan (N = 329) were asked to complete the Perceived Social Support Scale, the Perceived Social Power Scale, the Self-Empowerment Index, the Communication with the Principal Scale, and the Stress Response Scale. The teachers' recognition of principals' power, the teachers' empowerment, and communication with the principals had different effects on instrumental support and emotional support as perceived by the teachers. Teachers' recognition of emotional support from their principal, and the teachers' self-assertion, including empowerment, reduced the teachers' stress response. The teachers' recognition of emotional support from their principal emerged from the teachers' communication with the principal, the teachers' self-assertion, and the principals' expert power, reward power, and referent power,.