Abstract:

Background: Teachers’ job is fast becoming more stressful in recent times, and this tends to affect the level of teaching effectiveness. Stress may be conceptualized as a complex, multivariate process, resulting from a broad system of variables involving inputs, outputs, and the mediating activities of appraisal and coping.

Objective: The main objective of the study was to determine work stress among secondary school teachers in Gboko Local Government Area of Benue State. Specifically to determine the major stressors among secondary school teachers in Gboko L.G.A of Benue state, to identify the effects of these stressors on the health of secondary school teachers in Gboko L.G.A of Benue state and to identify the various methods of stress coping strategies used by secondary school teachers in Gboko L.G.A of Benue State.

Methodology: Cross-sectional descriptive survey design was used for the study to determine the work stress among teachers in Gboko L.G.A of Benue State. A total of 5 teachers (respondents) each from the randomly selected 39 secondary schools were selected to make a total of 195 sample size. The instrument of the study was questionnaire and formulated hypothesis was tested using chi-square

Results: The findings showed that secondary school teachers in Gboko L.G.A were experiencing stress in their teaching job as nearly all the teachers agree with items identified in the instrument as stressors. Inadequate salary, delayed payment of salary, delayed promotions; involuntary transfers are among poor working conditions considered highly or extremely stressful to the respondents.

Conclusion: The stress experience was found to have both physical and mental effects on the respondents. The findings also revealed that the secondary school teachers frequently use the active behavioral and inactive (escape) strategies in managing stress 2

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