Teacher stress in working with challenging students in Hong Kong

This article first illustrates how recent social, economic and educational development in Hong Kong contributes to teacher stress. It then presents data from an international study on teacher stress with respect to working with challenging students, i.e. students with behavioural problems. Teachers were asked to report on the perceived behavioural incidence, associated stress and the impacts of the most challenging student in their classes. The relationships among the various perceptions of teachers were examined using bivariate correlation, canonical correlation and one-way ANOVA. To account for the associated stress and impacts on teachers, negative affect, self-critical attitude and self-efficacy beliefs of teachers were found to be more important than the school characteristics. Compared to their counterparts, Hong Kong teachers were found to be subjected to highest negative impacts from the challenging students and have most negative beliefs in working with them. This study concludes with a discussion of the findings and remedies that might relieve the stress among teachers in Hong Kong.