A Study Of Influence On Mental Health Exerted By Stress And Coping Strategies Among University Teachers

Objective The purpose of the study is to examine the kind of stress the university teachers face, the kind of coping behavior adopt and lastly their physical and health conditions. This study also probes into the influence on mental health exerted by the stress and coping strategies among university teachers. The scientific theory evidence will be provided for deepening and perfecting system reform of universities.Methods Based on the previous literature review done in the field of psychology, the researcher designed questionnaires and conducted questionnaires investigations among university teachers. Investigation has been made on university teachers in Wuhan Universtity, Huazhong University of Science and technology and HuaZhong Normal University by the use of cluster sampling method. The stratum was arts, science, engineer and medical. The questionnaire survey included: demographics, Scale for Stress on University Teachers, SCL-90 and Scale for Coping Style on University Teachers. This investigation was performed by investigators and trained researchers at assistance of education organization. Questionnaire were distributed and gathered together, each teacher completed it by himself. In all, 530 teachers were interviewed, among whom male teachers to female teachers was 2:1; successful questionnaires were 519, which were from 97.92% of interviewee. Adopt the statistical software of SAS 8.1 to analyze. The data collected were analyzed by means of frequencies, correlations and stepwise regression.Results Investigation has been made on 519 university teachers by use of self-made Scale for Stress on University Teachers, Symptom Scale (SCL-90) and Scale for Coping Style on University Teachers at the same time. The results are as follows:(1) In general, university teachers'feeling of work stress is not relatively strong, of whom 70.91% feel stress and only 23.31% feel either low stress or no stress, but 5.78% feel very strong stress. Meanwhile they share a worse state of mental health with 83.62% showing had psychological reaction of various degrees and 1.73% clearly having questions of mental health.(2) Stresses emerging from work burden, the management system of university and social status is the major source of the work stress on university teachers. The general feeling of the stress of teachers from the difference of age, school age, the title of a technical post and health status turns out to be rather significant.(3) While encountering the stress events, the university teachers mainly coped with them actively. The most frequently utilized coping styles were"problem solution". There were significant differences between genders and school age in coping style.(4) The level of mental health of university teachers is remarkably lower than that of average domestic population. The difference is represented by such symptoms as imposition, dumps, physical symptom, hostility, anxiety and so on. Teachers from difference groups differ in symptom. The difference between teachers of different marriage status and health status turns out to be rather significant.(5) There exists significant positive correlation between the degree of work stress and other coping style except active coping style. There exists significant positive correlation between the degree of work stress and the level of mental health. There were correlations between coping style and mental health.(6) Stress and coping style affect the university teachers'mental health effectively. Mental health is closely related to sex, health status, stress from individual idiosyncracy and work burden, active coping style and negative coping style. Of these,"individual idiosyncracy"had the most power. Mental health of female teachers was better than male teachers. If teachers were health mental health of them was fine. Stress from individual idiosyncracy and work burden and negative coping style resulted in bad in mental health. However, coping with stress actively would enhance the level of mental health of the university teachers. Conclusion Stresses emerging from work burden, the management system of university and social status is the major source of the work stress on university teachers. While encountering the stress events, the university teachers mainly coped with them actively. The level of mental health of university teachers is remarkably lower than that of average domestic population. The difference is represented by such symptoms as imposition, dumps, physical symptom, hostility, anxiety and so on. Stress and coping style affect the university teachers'mental health effectively. Mental health is closely related to stress from individual idiosyncracy and work burden, active coping style and negative coping style. This paper analyzed and discussed the above results and, based on results of investigation and the reality of university teacher'work, made such suggestions for lessening the work stress on university teachers and improving their mental health at the social, institutional and personal levels as follows. First, society should be concerned with university teachers and attach great importance to their considerably high degree of stress and relatively low level of mental health. Not only should research on this matter be strengthened, but also effective measures should be taken to actually lessen the stress on university teachers and to protect and improve their mental health. Second, management of school should"untie"the teachers, lighten the work shares on them and create a favorable work and psychological environment for them. Third, teachers themselves also should develop a sound understanding of their stress and make full use of proper tactics so as to lessen their sense of stress and enhance their psychological defending ability.