Teachers' attributions of responsibility for their occupational stress in the People's Republic of China and Australia

Background. This study examines similarities and differences in teachers' attributions of responsibility for occupational stress in large education systems in New South Wales, Australia and Hebei Province, China. Aims. The principal research aim was to compare teachers' self-reported stress and attributions of responsibility for stress in a collectivist and an individualistic culture. Samples. The NSW random stratified sample consisted of 487 teachers; the Hebei sample was a representative, but not random, sample of 200 teachers. Methods, Analysis was carried out using principal components and cofirmatory factor analysis, discriminant analysis and multiple regression analysis. When direct comparisons were made between the two data sets, within-subject standardisation, to adjust for cultural differences in completion of questionnaires employing Likert-type scales, was carried out. Results. Various analyses suggest that both the Australian and Chinese teachers had similar attribution patterns for entities conceptually relatively close to self, but the Chinese teachers did not exhibit an attributional bias when attributing responsibility for stress to entities more distant from self. Conclusions. There is some evidence that the attribution-of-responsibility for stress model explains teachers' attributions in both cultures, but with differences which are consistent with collectivism-individualism.