Stress Management Coping Strategies used by Female Principals in Kenya: A Case Study of Rachuonyo North and Homa Bay Sub Counties

Abstract

School principals in Kenya do experience stress mainly due to administrative related stressors than teaching stressors. Such stressors include: Limited opportunities for professional development, tight time deadlines for tasks, delayed disbursement of school funds, interpersonal relations, social support, expert assistance, work overload among others. Some studies have revealed that both male and female teachers experience same stress levels, while other studies have contradicted these findings by asserting that females experience more stress than males (Gebrekirstos, 2015; Bray, Camlin, Fairbank, Dunteman & Wheeless, 2001). Notwithstanding these contradictions, school principals must embrace coping strategies to function effectively. To collect data for the study, stressor coping strategies questionnaire was used. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to estimate and describe the findings of the study. Accordingly, the study established that female principals experienced stress and used different strategies to cope. The relationship between coping strategies and levels of stress among female principals was strong and significant. The coping strategies accounted for 43.8% of variation in stress levels. The strategies were found to be significant predictors of stress among female principals; and that for one unit increase in the use of the coping strategies, stress level would improve by 0.523 units. The study recommended that stress management coping strategies should be adopted appropriately and used to sustain optimum stress levels among female principals. This is because optimum stress level is good for the functioning of men and women (Bray et al, 2001).

School Principals and Job Stress: The Silent Dismissal Agent and Forgotten Pill in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4

“…In sum, it is worth to note that job stress could have positive impact on the individual (Juma & Simatwa, 2016). However, excessive unmanaged job stress has been linked to a long list of physical and mental health problems (Colbert, 2008).…”

“…Queen & P. Queen, 2005) and especially as the pace of development has increased, the phenomenon of job stress has become common among leaders (Wadesango, Gudyanga, & Mberewere, 2015). It is therefore, not out of context when the teaching profession and role of principals are described as highly stressful (Juma & Simatwa, 2016).…”

“…Regarding the day-to-day operations of the school principal, workload, lack of resources, and social support had been identified as stressors, Cooper and Kelly (1993), decades ago reported workload as one source of job stress for principals. And recently, Juma and Simatwa (2016) also identified limited opportunities for professional development, tight time deadlines for tasks, delayed disbursement of school funds, interpersonal relations, social support, and lack of expert assistance among others.…”

The Principal at Risk: Stress and Organizing Mindfulness in the School Context

“…The widespread tendency to merge different school cycles (elementary and Junior high schools) in the so-called “Istituti Comprensivi” (Comprehensive Schools, ages 5–13), for administrative reasons, was associated with a greater load of tension and pressure for principals, who probably find it difficult to manage with a single approach the problems and differences that arise from educational orientations and professional profiles traditionally characterized by a plurality of visions, different approaches to teaching and evaluation of students, diversity in the level of involvement of families in school life, different propensity and habit of teachers of different cycles (primary and secondary) to work on shared projects. It would seem that the management of these differences, rather than the size of the school (in terms of number of students, and therefore of teachers), is a reason for greater pressure and tension at work [ 43 , 44 ].…”

Practices, Personal and School Factors That Influenced School Heads’ Job Stress and Satisfaction

“…Similarly, Borg and Riding (1991), Anastasiou and Papakonstantinou (2014), Dadaczynski and Paulus (2016) and Juma and Simatwa (2016). Though significant strides were made in investigating the phenomenon stress in education worldwide (see Boyland, 2011;Chandler, 2001;Darmody & Symth, 2016;Gmelch & Gates, 1998;Poirel et al, 2012;Wang et al, 2018) much research was not conducted on the subject in the study context.…”