Compari̇ng the stress levels of female and male teachers working in high schools

Stress is one of the prominent notions of the century, frequently encountered among people from all social strata, especially, in institutions where working people are at a large number. One accurate example for this category would be schools and schoolteachers. The aim of this research was to determine the stress levels of female and male teachers who worked in high schools. The problem of the research was "What are the determining factors for stress levels of high school teachers?" This research was conducted using a quantitative method and scale for determining stress level, which was developed and pilot work was done by researchers. This scale was implemented on 100 teachers working in Istanbul's European side, in Besiktas, Zeytinburnu and Esenler districts. Determining the stress levels of female and male teachers were based on the differences between the variables such as gender, age, state of education, years of seniority both in teaching in general and teaching in their current institution, number of students, and type of school, teaching method and teacher's specialty. The findings were analyzed by using SPSS 15 t-test, Anova and Scheffe test. As a result, significant differences in nine items were identified regarding the gender variable. According to the gender factor, the stress level was higher in female teachers, compared to male teachers, in situations such as; conditions that fail to meet their needs, having problems in their personal life, being affected more in certain circumstances, during time of sickness, in the lack of communication in school, unfavorable scheduling of courses, in failure of getting their money's worth. Depending on the age factor, significant differences in two items were identified. The teachers between the ages 22 and 27 were more likely to show higher levels of stress, compared to other age groups, with regard to the possibility of a deterioration in the school climate, and/or, the idea of being worn out in the years to come by teaching. When teachers were evaluated according to their marital status, married teachers compared to single ones, showed a higher level of stress, having problems in their marriages and finding their wages inadequate. Based on the state of education variable, significant difference in two items was identified. The group of teachers with a graduate and an associate degree were prone to generate higher levels of stress when their needs weren't met, compared to the group of teachers with an undergraduate degree. Moreover, for the ones with an associate degree, the thought of being in competition with the other groups lead them to become more stressful. Only one item showed significant difference with regard to the years of seniority variable. According to this factor, the group of teachers who have been working for 6 to 10 years were more prone to experience higher levels of stress, compared to teachers from other groups of seniority, based on the concern that this profession would wear them out in time. Depending on the number of students, teachers who worked in schools with a number of students between 2001 and 4000 define themselves as stressful, compared to the ones who worked in schools with a less number of students. It was detected that the stress level of the former group is based on the inadequacy of the physical structure of their working environment. Regarding the school type variable, one item showed significant difference where the social environment in state schools generated more factions among the teachers, compared to private schools. Therefore, the teachers in state schools have more inclined to be affected by working in an environment, where groupings occurred, and this factor caused a rise in their stress levels. The other significant difference was found on the variable of teacher's specialty. The groups of people who teach quantitative coursed tend to generate higher levels of stress when they were unable to answer their students' questions, compared to the other groups of teachers. The research showed that female teachers have a higher level of stress compared to male teachers. Therefore, it was recommended that female should be supported both materially and morally, and given more in-service training, in order to motivate them better in their work life. Keywords: stress level, stress in high school teachers, reasons of stress