Volume 35 Number 1
October 1995

Introduction
During recent years, the terms "burnout" and "stress" have been increasingly associated with educators. Because stress is a medically related occurrence, researchers in various fields have taken an interest in this phenomenon. Job-related stress and the possible result, burnout, can affect all educators.

Related Research in Education Administration
Using a variety of exploratory techniques, researchers studying school administrators and teachers (Crawford, 1983; Feitler & Tokar, 1986; Gmelch, 1983; Wiggins, 1983; 1988) found that job-related stress for educators was linked to coping mechanisms. In research on coping strategies, specifically the use of stress management classes, Buzzelli-White (1988) found principals experiencing only moderate levels of stress. A study of elementary principals produced the most significant results (Lutton, 1988). Crowell (1991) found that supervising and coordinating the tasks of many people produced the most stress for the principals he studied. Other researchers found that while their samples did not yield statistical significance, many of their subjects reported practical assessments of job-related stress (Emler, 1992; DeVuyst, 1992; Farkas, 1982).

Related Research in Educational Instruction
Despite an increasing sophistication in the teacher stress literature, research in this area has relied primarily on survey procedures and has been limited. Studies of teachers during the last decade have conceptualized teacher stress in many of the same ways that administrative stress was reviewed. The earliest reports in the literature were attempts to define teacher stress and burnout (Matthews, 1980). Saunders and Watkins (1980, 1982) and Welch (1983) used survey research in the South to study the relationship between occupational stress and general stress of teachers. The literature on teacher stress closely paralleled that which studied administrators (Welch, 1983); however, the primary differences in these two sets of research were that the most recent research completed on teachers used historical methods (Farber, 1991) and case studies (Blase, 1985). The research on administrators, even the exploratory research, used quantitative methods. Further the research on teacher stress reported clearer evidence of job-related stress (Sch, 1988; Schonfeld, 1990).

Review of Related Literature
An important basis for the current project is that perceptions of job-related stress vary with the type of position occupied by the employee. In this project, some individuals provide assistance for total care and have been designated as support personnel. In reviewing the literature available on educators, it was clear that some of the general conclusions were applicable, however, others were not. This section of the review of the literature surveyed other job categories, specifically those that might reflect total care in order to provide some framework for the support personnel who work in boarding schools and who are primarily responsible for a child's health, safety, discipline, recreation, and guidance. Minimal research was found dealing with minority populations and their perceptions of stress. The Mental Health Research and Development (1982) study found stress was linked to lack of resources. The research available on employees who provide total care for clients was limited. No research which included total care was found in educational resources, indicating that research on boarding schools is minimal. The data which were available for this study reviewed research on employees who provided home care to clients (Bartoldus, Gilley, & Sturges, 1989). The conclusions drawn from this review would be relative to the project because the study found that employees reported two distinct types of stressors: tasks and clients. Kishi's (1989) study using job-related stress and organizational commitment was of interest to this research because it attempted to test similar questions, e.g., do people in social service organizations develop coping strategies for stress. Using a sample of 123, Kishi found limited strategies for stress management contributed to a high level of burnout. Women reported more indicators of job-related stress than men in human services organizations (Jeffery, 1990).

Summary
Research on job-related stress in education primarily has used administrators and teachers as samples; however, the methodology is quite varied. Job-related stress research which studied employees who provide home care, while not focusing on educators, did provide valuable information to complement the research reviewed previously.

A review of the literature indicated that stress was defined by different variables. The definition of stress and its connections to such indicators as locus of control, situational powerlessness, tedium, theoretical bureaucracy and person-environment have produced a number of studies which attempted to relate these indicators to stress among educators. These studies have provided initial data and also have produced several lines of inquiry which have served to focus this project. The first line of inquiry was the definition of job-related stress for educators. It was clear from the studies reviewed that problems with the instruments accounted for problems in the interpretation of the data. The second line of inquiry led to the development of the instrument for this project.

Research Design
Reliability of the instrument was insured by two strategies. First, a pilot test was completed on the instrument. The second strategy to insure reliability was by using the same test instrument in each of the schools and by giving the same instructions each time the opinionnaire was distributed.

The pilot instrument used to develop the Job Stress Opinionnaire was field tested for content validity and clarity with a group of 25 practicing education personnel. After revision a second pilot test involving 20 different individuals was completed. Content validity of the research relied on the researchers' combined years of experience in the BIA educational system. They have been employed at five different boarding schools and two different day schools. The writers have been employed in all subgroups identified in this opinionnaire. Their Bureau experience included working in settings ranging from primary education to postsecondary education. Since this was the population of interest, experience assisted in assuring content validity.

Population and Sample
The population for this project included education employees of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in schools located in the Southwestern United States. These employees worked in school agencies in Arizona and New Mexico. The BIA operates two types of schools in these agencies: day schools and boarding schools.

There were seventy-six BIA operated schools in these two states. The list of schools were divided into the two groups to be used for the analyses. They were stratified in order for the sample to represent day schools and boarding schools equally. Five schools were chosen from each group.

The employees were grouped based on the type of school in which they were employed and the type of position they occupied. Employees were categorized as day school employees or boarding school employees for some analyses. For other analyses the employees were grouped based on the type of position they occupied at the school. There were three types of positions at each of the schools. Employees were considered administrative, instructional, or support. All employees at each of the targeted schools were asked to complete the opinionnaire. The study was designed to collect responses from employees in a manner which assured the confidential treatment of the data. The instrument was coded to the site only; confidentiality was assured.

Hypotheses
   Null Hypothesis
   H0 [in original document, the zero is subscripted]: There will be no significant difference between the mean scores of perceptions of stress for employees in day schools and employees in boarding schools.

   Hypothesis One
   H1 [in original document, the 1 is subscripted]: There will be no significant difference between the mean scores of perceptions of stress for employees based on type of school and type of position

Research Instruments
The instrument was designed to elicit responses in four areas. The instrument's statements one to four required responses about physical health. Statement five was a summary or global statement about physical health. The next set of statements was designed to cover areas of emotional/mental health. Statements six to nine required responses in this area and statement ten was designed as the global statement for emotional/mental health. Statements eleven to fourteen required responses on job performance and statement fifteen was the global statement. Statements sixteen to nineteen asked for responses on attitudes toward the job and statement twenty was designed as the global statement. Each set has four statements followed by a global statement.

This twenty item, self-administered opinionnaire was especially designed for measurement of stress by Bureau of Indian Affairs employees. It provided a comprehensive assessment of stress for this homogenous population. The Job Stress Opinionnaire employs a five point Likert-type scale. This scale has proven to be multidimensional in nature (Tung & Koch, 1980).

The response category 'never' was coded as 1; 'seldom' was coded as 2; 'sometimes' was coded as 3; 'frequently' was coded as 4; and 'always' was coded as 5. The higher the total score (range from 20 to 100) the better the employee felt about the job and the less stress the employee evidenced. Low scores indicated a negative feeling about the job.

Sampling Methods and Procedures
The opinionnaire was sent to the school supervisors at each of the targeted schools. They were asked to distribute the opinionnaire. The school supervisor was given pre-addressed stamped envelopes for each of the opinionnaires to be returned to the researchers.

Those returning the questionnaire constituted the sample size. Opinionnaires were coded in order that follow-up calls could be directed appropriately. All employees at the targeted schools were sent materials with no control being exerted over the number of persons in each position classification (e.g., Administrative, Instructional, and Support).

Analytical Methods
The researchers measured the perceptions of stress on Bureau of Indian Affairs employees. The researchers identified two independent variables. The first was classification of employee by type of school (Day or Boarding). The second independent variable was type of employee classified by job function (Administrative, Instructional, and Support). The researchers assumed that the dependent variable measured was normally distributed, was equally varied in all cells, and was an independent observation. A two-way ANOVA was performed to determine the interactions between the independent and dependent variables.

The dependent variable, perceptions of stress by BIA employees, was defined as the constant. Job-related stress was defined to include mental health, physical health, job performance and attitudes toward job which combined to create a non-specific response of the body to any demand made upon it. The main effect of type of school on an individual score, the main effect of the type of job position on an individual score, and the possible interaction of the two were studied.

Results and Findings
The opinionnaire was distributed to three hundred and fifty members of the population. The schools where the respondents worked had been randomly selected from a population of seventy-six schools in Arizona and New Mexico. Ten schools were selected to participate in the study. The schools were chosen based on the proportion of day schools and boarding schools in the population.

The respondents also completed a demographic questionnaire. This questionnaire elicited information on each of the respondents regarding the gender of the respondent, ethnicity, the number of years employed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the number of years in the current position. The data was collected and used in the classification of respondents in order that comparisons could be made between the two primary groups in the study: type of school and type of position (Table 1).

Fifty-two responses were from day schools and ninety-three responses were from boarding schools. The respondents indicated which type of position they occupied in their current position. Responses to the categorical variable of gender included sixty-one males and eighty-four females. Sixty-four percent of the respondents self-identified as American Indian; 31% percent self-identified as White; one percent self-identified as Alaskan Native; four percent self-identified as Hispanic; and two percent self-identified as Black.

The respondents indicated that they had been employed in the Bureau of Indian Affairs for a minimum of one year and a maximum of forty years. The average length of employment by the total group was nearly twelve years and these same respondents had been employed in their current position in the BIA for an average of eight and one half years. The total group tended to remain in the same position. Table 2 illustrates the longevity of the population. Day school administrators indicated the longest period of employment by the BIA; however, this category also has the smallest number. Boarding school administrators also reported a high average for total years employed by the BIA (17), indicating that administrators for these schools tend to remain in the Bureau.

Day school instructional employees reported an average of eight years of service, while boarding school instructional employees reported an average of eleven years. It would appear that boarding school instructional employees remained in government service longer than day school instructional employees. For the final category of support personnel, day school employees reported an average of nine years of employment and boarding school employees reported an average of twelve years.

In two of the three positions, employees remained in government service longer in a boarding school than those employees in similar positions in a day school. The average day school employee had been employed for ten years and the average length of employment for boarding school employees was thirteen years. From the responses it was evident that most employees had had experience in their current position and that the possibility of perceptions of stress being attributed to the uncertainty of a new position were unlikely.

Table 3 summarizes the descriptive statistics for the independent variable of Type of School.
Table 3 shows the means and standard deviations for the type of schools: Day and Boarding. Employees who are currently employed in day schools evidenced significantly higher perceptions of stress than did employees at boarding schools (t = +/ 1.960, df = 143, p < .05). The t-test of differences between means for the two groups identified as Day school employees and Boarding school employees yielded a t statistic of 1.988. This was significant at the .05 level indicating that the null hypothesis can be rejected. The mean score for perceptions of stress would indicate that employees in day schools reported more stress than employees in boarding schools.

Based on the results of the t test for differences in means for the type of school, the researchers felt that the type of position would influence the perceptions of stress by the employees in the sample. In order to test this hypothesis, the researchers set up a 2 x 3 factorial ANOVA.

The results of the Two Factor ANOVA are represented in Table 4.

For the two way ANOVA factorial design, type of school was the independent variable, with two levels--day and boarding. The moderator variable was type of position, with three levels-administration, instruction, and support. The dependent variable was the score which represented the perceptions of the Job Stress Opinionnaire. The lower the score reported, the higher the stress because stress was conceptualized as negative. This design used an unweighted mean solution to handle unequal numbers.

The employees from the day schools reported higher mean perceptions of stress than their counterparts in each of the categories in the boarding schools. Also, for all three types of positions, administrators reported higher perceptions of stress than did instructors and both reported higher perceptions of stress than employees in the support category. The group means suggested that the variables were parallel, indicating little likelihood of an interaction. In fact, since none of the F statistics were significant, it would appear that there was no interaction between type of school and type of position.

Summary
Overall forty-two percent of the employees in the stratified random sample responded to the instrument with usable information. An initial test for differences in means between the reported perceptions of job related stress for BIA employees in day schools and boarding schools indicated that there was a significant difference between the two groups at the .05 level. This required further analysis and the researchers tested a second hypothesis which included type of position held at the school. In testing this hypothesis, the researchers used a 2 x 3 factorial design, yet the resulting F statistic was not significant at the .05 level. Therefore, the researchers failed to reject the hypothesis that type of position impacted the two groups and produced the initial difference.

This study of perceptions of stress for education employees was generated on the basis of the researchers' years of experience. Having had the opportunity to work in day and boarding schools, as well as to have had the chance to work in administration, instruction, and support, the researchers were able to provide an effective link between practice and theory. It was particularly important that the research in this study was done by American Indians because much of the research which has been done on this population has been done by non-Indians. Historically, accounts of Indians by non-Indians have been useful but not particularly accurate. Further, current researchers in the social sciences, particularly those who are American Indian, assert that the fundamental objective of research can not be attained if the researcher is unable to evaluate the information which is gathered or obtained (LaFromboise & Plake, Noley, 1993; 1983; Warner, 1989).

Previous research found that job-related stress for educators was evident. These studies found that administrator stress produced the most significant results (Lutton, 1988) and the results of the two-way ANOVA reinforced this conclusion. The strongest perceptions of job-related stress were found in the administrative groups.

Several of the previous researchers had found that while educators reported, at least in narrative form, some evidence of job-related stress, most often the instrument developed for their research and the subsequent statistical treatment of the data did not produce significant results (DeVuyst, 1992; Emler, 1992; Farkas, 1982). This study replicated those findings to a degree. It appeared that there was more evidence from the narratives provided by the sample than the statistical treatment was able to illustrate.

The related research indicated that there is little research on minority populations, particularly American Indians. There is practically no research on employees who are responsible for total care, as the support personnel are defined in this study. This is a function of the uniqueness of the system from which the sample was drawn. In the one study which focused on social service organizations, Jeffery (1990) found that women reported more indicators of job-related stress than did men. Gender was not used as a moderator variable for any of the tests generated by the hypotheses used in this research. The demographic information is available however, and one suggestion for future research would be to use gender to determine differences in perceptions of job-related stress for males and females.

1. There is little research on American Indians and less research authorized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Therefore, the review of literature was limited to the dependent variable, perceptions of stress, and this was available for some education employees; however, there was little previous research on stress by employees who were responsible for total care.
2. The study was further limited to those schools in the Southwest. This represented nearly one-half of the total number of schools operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs; however, it may be that employees in schools in other areas would have had other concerns.
3. The study was limited in that employees were asked to report self-perceptions. The researchers assumed that the responses were honest evaluations of each statement.
4. The dependent variable of job-related stress was conceptualized to be the same for all three sub-samples used in the data analysis. Based on the narrative responses it may be that job-related stress is perceived different by administrators, instructors, and support personnel.

The researchers anticipated a higher response rate to the opinionnaire. One possible cause of the final rate may have been a reluctance to participate in this type of activity by individuals who are not accustomed to social science research. Since the demographics indicated that most of the sample were members of a minority group and since it is expected that the sample accurately reflected the total population, it is not surprising that a majority of the total sample would be cautious about the type of research and the consequences of their participation.

One positive aspect of the barriers encountered was the amount of information provided by the sample under the general, open-ended question on the opinionnaire. The subjects were asked to respond to the following question: What causes you the most stress in your job? A majority of the 145 employees responded to this question. Some provided short lists, others provided a more complete narrative. These responses were seen as positive evidence that there are perceptions of job-related stress by these employees. So while this question and its response were not part of the overall study, the information provided can be used as a basis for suggesting the direction for future research in this area. Based on these responses, the researchers would consider conceptualizing perceptions of job-related stress to be different variables for administrators, instructors, and support personnel. There was evidence that each group had different priorities. This difference was one of the barriers not anticipated.

Finally, in assessing future research questions for this population, the researchers suggest that the groups which indicated the highest perceptions of stress should be target groups for future research. Day school administrators could provide baseline information on perceptions of stress through observational research. A study which provided a control group and an experimental group and their responses to stress would be interesting and would provide further answers to questions of causation.