Coping with job‐related stress: The case of teachers

In a study involving 67 veteran New York City teachers five occupational coping scales were constructed: advice seeking, positive comparisons, selective ignoring, discipline and direct action. Multiple regression analyses with controls for social‐demographic factors and adversity in the job environment indicated that advice seeking and direct action were most consistently related to lower (depressive and psychophysiologic) symptom levels and that positive comparisons and direct action were most consistently related to higher morale (job satisfaction and motivation to continue in the profession). Selective ignoring appeared to buffer the impact of adverse work environments on symptoms. The results suggest that teaching may constitute an occupational role which is an exception to Pearlin & Schooler's (1978) more general findings on the lack of efficacy of work‐related coping behaviours.