Stressors, emotional experience, and coping in Quebec school principals

The present study examined the work related stress of school principals in Quebec. The use of a mixed method made it possible to link the objective sources of stress identified by questionnaire to the subjective emotional experience of principals who were observed and filmed during a working day before participating to stimulated recall using video confrontation. The results show that the main sources of the stress come from administrative constraints, interpersonal relations, and educational reform. School principals consequently experience anger and anxiety while emotional inhibition is the most frequently used coping strategy.