The effect of work stress on teachers' intention to leave the institution and professional commitment

The aim of the study was to determine the work-related stress, intention to leave the institution, and professional commitment of high school teachers and the effect of their work-related stress on their intention to leave the institution and professional commitment. The research was conducted with the correlational research study design, which is a quantitative research model. The population of the research consists of 6870 teachers working in public and private secondary education institutions in the five central districts of Antalya in the 2023-2024 academic year. In the research, two sampling methods were conducted. Firstly, stratified sampling was done, simple random sampling methods were used in the second stage and 493 high school teachers were included in the sample of the research. Work-related stress scale, intention to leave the organization scale, and professional commitment scale were used as data collection tools. Parametric and nonparametric tests were performed in data analysis through SPSS 20.0 program (t-test and one-way ANOVA for unrelated sampling, Kruskal Wallis H-test, bivariate correlation (Pearson correlation coefficient), and simple regression). As a result of the research, while high school teachers' work-related stress and intention to leave the institution and normative commitment were at medium levels, their emotional commitment to the profession, continuance commitment, and occupational commitment were at high levels. In addition, their work-related stress, intention to leave the institution and professional commitment differed statistically in terms of gender, professional seniority, institution, and school type variables although no significant difference was detected between the educational status groups at any dimensions. Finally, it was determined that job stress was a significant predictor of intention to leave the organization and professional commitment variables. In this context, measures should be taken to reduce work-related stress to improve the commitment of these teachers to the institution and the profession.