Factors affecting teachers' stress levels in the Botha-Bothe district of Lesotho

English: Stress is attributed to be an interference that disturbs a person's mental and physical well-being. Stress results have negative effects: physically (headaches), behaviourally (overreacting), emotionally (fatigue) and mentally (forgetfulness). This study was undertaken to identify whether factors causing stress, such as role conflict, role overload, role insufficiency, role ambiguity, responsibility and physical environment are prevalent amongst teachers in the Botha-Bothe district of Lesotho. In establishing this, a standardized occupational stress inventory (OS!), measuring all these factors, was administered in the named area. The aim of this study was to review the related local and international literature on stress regarding factors such as causes, effects and coping strategies, to do an empirical study, to analyse and interpret the data, to make suggestions to the government of Lesotho based on the findings in the study. Both a null and an alternative hypothesis were stated for this study. Ho: Teachers in Lesotho do not have stress and there are no factors causing stress amongst them. HI: Teachers in Lesotho suffer from stress and there are factors, effects and coping strategies. Because a study of this nature has never been undertaken in Lesotho and because the targeted clientele was government registered secondary and high schools of Botha-Bothe district of Lesotho, use was made of a standardised test which has a high validity and reliability. The occupational stress inventory (OS!) was chosen. The OSI was developed for two reasons: To develop generic measures of occupational stressors that would apply across different occupational levels of the environment and to provide measures for an integrated theoretical model, linking sources of stress in the . work environment, the physiological strains experienced by individuals as a result of work stressors and the coping resources available to combat the effects of stressors and alleviate stress. In order to substantiate and verify all the factors relating to stress, a comprehensive literature study on the phenomenon "stress" was undertaken. Relevant books, articles, journals and bulletins were consulted. The literature review gave a comprehensive picture of stress regarding stress in general, its effects and coping strategies. The empirical study concentrated on three domains: the occupational stress domain (ORQ) was measured on a set of six scales. The personal strain questionnaire (PSQ) and the personal resource questionnaire (PRQ) were both measured on four separate scales. The self-made questionnaire was also used to gather general information for individual respondents like post, sex, religion, level of teaching, race, qualifications, age, number of children of individual respondents and experience. Administration was applied on government registered secondary and high schools of the Botha-Bothe district of Lesotho using random sampling. Analysis and interpretation of data collected under the supervision of a registered psychologist was done through frequency distribution and analysis of variance through the computer section of the University of the Orange Free State. No stress was found. Summary suggestions and conclusions constitute the fifth chapter.