Mental Health of High School Teachers in Relation to Their Sex, Experience and Job Satisfaction

Mental Health of High School Teachers in Relation to Their Sex, Experience and Job Satisfaction

Abstract

Teaching is considered as one of the oldest and noblest profession. With the changing socio- economic scenario and increasing unemployment, the values of teacher and their professional concern with the job have forcibly undergone a change which adversely effects there mental health. The level of mental health of teacher has affected his/her working as well as organizational climate. Keeping into this thing into consideration, the study is aimed at finding the mental health of high school teachers and its relation to sex, experience and job satisfaction. 250 teachers were selected from different High schools of Jammu district. Mental health inventory and job satisfaction inventory was used. It was found that experience has an important contribution in improving the mental health of the teachers as highly experienced teachers are better in comparison to low experienced teachers. Sex has no effect on the mental health of teachers. Further findings show that that job satisfaction has an effect on the mental health of the teachers.

Key words

Mental health, Job satisfaction, Sex, Experience

INTRODUCTION

In the world of today everyone is threatened by increasing population and degraded circumstances. Health is and has been always one of the most important areas where we need to focus. Concept of health extends beyond the proper functioning of the body; it includes controlled emotions, a sound and efficient mind. This means that mind and body both are working efficiently and harmoniously.

Mental health in broadest sense suggest a degree of positive conformity and satisfaction under conditions that warrant a state of mind and a capacity for making balanced personal and social relationship. A mental healthy person shows balanced behavior and faces the realities of life boldly.

Traditionally the teaching job enjoyed a considerably high level of prestige and only dedicated and selected individuals joined the profession. The teachers were usually held in very high esteem by the different sections of people and society was sensitive to take care of the needs of the teacher. With the changing socio-economic scenario and increasing unemployment, the values of teacher and their professional concern with the job have forcibly undergone a change which adversely affects the mental health of the teacher. The level of mental health of teacher can affect his working as well as his organizational climate. If teacher dont enjoy sound mental health, they cannot concentrate in teaching and retain the knowledge given to the students. Also, he cannot have a proper and well adjusted personality. So, teachers mental health plays an important role in teaching and learning process.

RATIONALE OF THE STUDY

The sound mental health is important to each and every person. It is generally believed that health and physical fitness are ideals about realization of which man has been striving for generations. So, the sound mental health of the person is important for those who (teacher) work for the development of the nation.

It is generally believed that the satisfaction of job is closely related to ones efficiency. The teachers are just like the main wheels on whose shoulders stand the Professional concern with the job, has forcibly undergone a change which adversely affects the mental health of the teacher.

The issue of teacher mental health has long been a topic of interest and concern to researcher in the field of education and psychology. Anand (1998) studied the job satisfaction of the teachers and found that central school teachers are more satisfied as compared to state school teachers. Das, Lakshaira and Panda (1996) found no differences in the degree of job satisfaction of male college and higher secondary teachers. Kamau, C.W. (1992) studied burnout and mental health of male and female teachers and found out that male teachers are more capable of coping with stress in comparison to female teachers. Sengupta (1993) found that teachers with direct influence led to low feelings of security, low acting level and low intelligence than indirect teachers. Barkat and Parveen (1999) studied the organization role stress of female university teachers and bank managers and found university teachers have high organization role stress than bank managers. Ausekar, Pratibha, (1996) studied the job satisfaction of government and private teachers and found that only13% of the school teachers are greatly satisfied with their job. Padmanabhaiah, S, found that secondary school teachers in general were dissatisfied with their job. Sharma (1995) attempted to study changes brought about by the influence of recent life experiences on mental health of school teachers. Kamau and Gupta (1994) constructed a mental health scale for study of mental health with 5 areas. Misra (1991) studied relationship between organizational climate in school teachers stress and burnout in relation to teachers personality. Keeping in view the paucity of Indian researchers on the mental health of teachers and inconsistent findings, the present research has made to study the effects of sex, experience and job satisfaction on the mental health of teachers of Jammu district of J&K state.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

1. To study the mental health of high school teachers.

2. To study the main effect of sex on the mental health of the government and private high school teachers.

3. To study the main effect of experience on the mental health of high school teachers.

4. To study the main effect of job satisfaction on the mental health of government and private high school teachers.

5. To study the double interactional effect of sex and experience on the mental health of high school teachers.

6. To study the double interactional effect of experience and job satisfaction on the mental health of high school teachers.

7. To study the double interactional effect of sex and job satisfaction on the mental health of government and private high school teachers.

8. To study the triple interactional effect of sex, experience and job satisfaction on the mental health of high school teachers.

HYPOTHESIS OF THE STUDY

1. It is likely that sex has no significant effect on the mental health of government and private high school teachers.

2. It is likely that experience has no significant effect on the mental health of high school teachers.

3. It is likely that job satisfaction has no significant effect on mental health of government and private high school teachers.

4. It is likely that there is no significant interactional effect of sex and experience on the mental health of high school teachers.

5. It is likely that there is no significant interactional effect of experience and job satisfaction on the mental health of high school teachers.

6. It is likely that there is no significant interactional effect of sex and job satisfaction on the mental health of government and private high school teachers.

7. It is likely that there is no significant triple interactional effect of sex, experience and job satisfaction on the mental health of high school teachers.

DELIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

The present study has been restricted to the following as

1. Teachers working in the high schools affiliated to the state board of School education taken for the present study./p>

2. The study was limited to 250 teachers i.e., (125 government and 125 private teachers)

3. The study was limited to three independent (sex, experience and job satisfaction) and one dependent variable (Mental health).

4. Highly job satisfied and low job satisfied teachers were taken for the study.

SAMPLE OF THE STUDY

The sample of the present study comprised of 250 teachers of government and private schools teaching in high Schools affiliated to Jammu and Kashmir board of school education.

TOOLS USED

The following tools was used to get the opinions of the teachers Mental Health inventory by H.P. Magotra.

Job satisfaction scale for Teachers by Pramod and Mutha.

PROCEDURE

After administering of the tools on the sample, the scoring was done as per the description given in the respective manuals of the standardized tools. Then the variables such as experience and job satisfaction were dichotomized into high experienced and low experienced and highly job satisfied and lowly job satisfied with the help of Q.1 and Q.3

A three way ANOVA with (2x2x2) factorial design was employed to determine the influence of the 3 independent variables such as sex, experience and job satisfaction and their interactional effect on the dependent variable i.e., Mental Health.

RESULTS AND FINDINGS OF THE STUDY

In order to accomplish the objectives of the study, three way ANOVA (2x2x2 Factorial experiment) is employed to study significant differences between government and private

high school teachers mental health in relation to their sex, experience and job satisfaction. The results are given in Table 1 and Table II separately.

TABLE I

Summary of Three- way ANOVA (2x2x2) factorial experiment) for Mental Health of teachers.

TABLE II

Mean Scores of teachers on mental health.

The following conclusions can be drawn from Table 1 and Table 2

There is no significant effect of sex on mental health of the high school teachers Table II also clears the picture that there is minor mean difference of 1.62% between the mental health of male and female teachers.

There is a significant effect of experience on the mental health of the high school teachers. Table II also clears that highly experienced teachers of high school are better in their mental health in comparison to low experienced high school teachers.

There is a significant effect of job satisfaction on the mental health of the teachers. Table II also clears that highly job satisfied are more stable in their mental health than the lowly job satisfied.

There is no significant double interactional effect of sex and experience on mental health of the teacher.

There is significant double interactional effect of experience and job satisfaction on the mental health of teacher.

There is no significant double interactional effect of sex and job satisfaction on the mental health of teacher.

There is no significant triple interactional effect of sex, experience and job satisfaction on the mental health of teacher.

IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSION OF THE STUDY

Findings from this study have implication for the role of policy makers, school authorities and higher educational authorities. As low experienced teachers differ significantly in mental health and are less satisfied in their job. Moreover low job satisfaction is a concern as it is also a cause for low mental health; the results of the study also indicate the differences between highly jobs satisfied teachers and low job satisfied teachers. So, policy makers and higher educational authorities should take into the matter seriously and should provide the necessary motivation, improved salaries, welfare packages, job security and attractive environment for the teachers in order to stabilize their mental health and provide job satisfaction to teachers. School administrators and higher educational authorities should arrange in-service training for teachers to refresh their knowledge of content and teaching method. Seminars, workshops and conferences should be organized in which teachers should be invited to refresh their knowledge and discuss their problems which they face in their work environment. It would be a better idea if limited workload according to the capacity of the teachers is given to them and special facilities like medical care, travelling allowance, special increment and rewards will be also helpful in improving the mental health of the teachers.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

Similar study can be undertaken in other districts of India also, since it is confined to Jammu district only.

Similar study can be undertaken on primary school, higher secondary school, and college and university teachers

Similar study can be undertaken on other professions.

Similar study can be undertaken in order to find out other variables influencing the mental health of teachers.

Interactional effect of experience and job satisfaction on the mental health of teacher is to be taken into consideration for further studies.

REFERENCES

Barkat, S.A. and A. Parveen 1999. Organizational role stress among bank mangers and University teachers. Parachi Journal of Psychological Dimensions 169-12

B.K. Passi and D.N. Sansawal 1991. Research in Teaching. Fourth Survey of Educational Research. NCERT. New Delhi.

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Sixth Survey

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