Association of Career Satisfaction with Stress and Depression: The Case of Preservice Music Teachers

Abstract

In order to investigate the relationships between preservice music teachers’ levels of career satisfaction, severity of depression, and perceived stress, ninety-four students enrolled in the music education BSc program of the faculty of education at a public university in southwestern part of Turkey were survey. Data were collected by Beck’s Depression Inventory, Perceived Stress Scale, and Career Satisfaction Scale. Associations were analyzed by ANOVA, Pearson’s product-moment correlation coefficient, and multiple linear regression. It was found that preservice music teachers’ stress and depression levels were significantly higher compared to previously reported means while career satisfaction levels were lower. Preservice music teachers’ career satisfaction scores significantly differed according to the grade level. There was a strong positive relationship between severity of depression and perceived stress level while career satisfaction was weakly and negatively associated with both severity of depression and perceived stress. Finally, career satisfaction neither was a predictor of nor predicted by stress or depression.