Managing job stress in teachers of children with autism: A rational emotive occupational health coaching control trial

Abstract

Background/objective: Teaching has been found to be 1 of the most stressful occupations worldwide. Stress associated with teaching is more critical among teachers teaching children with special needs in general and those with autism specifically, partly due to the heterogeneous nature of the disorders. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of Rational Emotive Occupational Health Coaching (REOHC) in minimizing job stress in teachers of children with autism (CWA).

Methods: A group-randomized waitlist control-trial design was adopted. A sample of 87 teachers of CWA who participated in the study was randomized into the immediate intervention group (IIG) and waitlist group (WLG). Participants were evaluated on 3 occasions: pretest, post-test and follow-up. Three instruments (Occupational Stress Index, Perceived Occupational Stress Scale and Stress Symptom Scale) were used to measure dimensions of job stress. After the pretest exercise, the IIG participated in a 2-hour REOHC programme weekly for a period of 12 weeks. Post- and follow-up evaluations were conducted respectively at 2 weeks and 3 months after the REOHC programme. Those in WLG were exposed to the REOHC after the follow-up assessment. Data collected were analysed using t-test statistics, repeated measures analysis of variance and bar charts.

Results: Results revealed that the perceived stress and stress symptoms of the REOHC group reduced significantly over WLG at post-test, and follow-up assessments. Changes in the occupational stress index scores across pre-, post- and follow-up measurements were minimal and could not account for a significant difference between the IIG and WLG.

Conclusion: It was concluded that REOHC is effective in reducing subjective feelings and physiological symptoms of job stress, even when the objective stressors remain constant among teachers of CWA and other employees who work in stressful occupational environments.

Figure 1

A conceptual Model of REOHC and Job-Stress. ‘A’ the activating event is the negative occupational experiences, such as children's problem behavior triggers ‘B’ which represents the irrational/negative beliefs and worldviews about teaching children with autism leading to ‘C’ the emotional physical and behavioural consequences such as stress symptoms; ‘D’ disputation using REOHC leads the clients to adopt more helpful beliefs ‘E’ which ultimately lead to positive feelings in the form of reduced stress symptoms ‘F’.

Figure 2

Flowchart showing Research Methodology. Design = Group-randomized waitlist control trial design; Participants = 87 teachers of children with autism (male = 26; female = 61) who met the inclusion criteria. Sampling techniques = Purposive Sampling; Instrument for data collection = Occupational Stress Index, Perceived Occupational Stress Scale and Stress Symptom Scale; Randomizations = Immediate Intervention (N = 43) and Waitlist Control Group (N = 44); Baseline data collection = pretest; Intervention = REOHC Intervention; Post-test, follow-up; waitlist intervention = REOHC Intervention; Data analysis = t-test statistics, repeated measures ANOVA and bar charts. ANOVA = analysis of variance.

Figure 3

Description of the demographic distribution of the participants. IIG = Immediate Intervention group, WLG = waitlist-control group, sch = school.

Figure 4

Bar chart showing OSI, POSS and SSS scores across Time 1, 2 and 3. IIG = immediate intervention group, OSI = occupational stress index, POSS = perceived occupational stress, SSS = stress symptom scale, WLG = waitlist control group. Data show that OSI did not vary significantly between the IIG and WLG in each measurement Time. POSS did not vary between the groups at Time 1, but varied significantly during Time 2 and 3. SSS did not vary significantly between IIG and WLG during the Time 1, but varied significantly during Time 2 and 3 evaluations.