Moderating Effect of Coping Skills on the Relationship between Occupational Stressors and Job Morale of Technical Teachers in South East Nigeria Moderating Effect of Coping Skills on the Relationship between Occupational Stressors and Job Morale of Technical Teachers in South East Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the moderating effect of coping skills on the relationship between work environment stressors and teachers’ morale in Technical Colleges in South East Nigeria. Two specific objectives, two research questions and two null hypotheses were stated to guide the study. The study utilized the descriptive survey research design. The population of the study was 360, comprised of Principals and teachers from public technical college in South-East Nigeria.The sample size was 176 respondents. A two stage sampling procedure was employed for the study. Three instruments were used for the study. The first instrument was developed by the researcher. It was “Teachers Occupational Stress and Morale Questionnaire (TOSMQ)” and the  Organizational Constraints Scale (OCS) was an adopted instrument based on the work of Peters and O’Connor (1980). The third instrument, COPE Inventory developed by Carver, et al (1989) was adopted for this study. The instrument Teachers Occupational Stress and Morale Questionnaire, TOSMQ was subjected to a trial test using the Cronbach Alpha method of determining reliability. The instrument was trial tested on 30 respondents who are not part of the sample but are in the study area. The scores obtained from the trial-test was subjected to Pearson product moment correlation (PPMC) alpha analysis. The result gave a value of 0.88 for TOSMQ. Structural equation modelling (SEM) path analysis was used to answer research questions 3-10 and to test all the null hypothesis at .05 level of significance. Findings f the study showed that Findings from the path analysis shows a moderate negative mediating effect of emotion focused coping (EFC) on the relationship between work environment and teachers’ morale in technical colleges. There is a significant moderating effect of coping skills on the relationship between organisational constraints and teachers’ morale. The study recommends that Problem-focused coping will help teacher to deal better with stress work situations, as such, teachers are advised to always improvise and find practical ways to solve work related problems.