A study to investigate if job stress and job satisfaction differs within two different sectors of early year’s education : childcare workers and primary school teachers.

Abstract

In today’s current economic society childcare workers and primary school teachers are possibly amongst some of the most significant and influential people in determining your child’s future. Upon these people rest the developmental years of any child which will affect their hope and their future. There is a high expectation from both professions regarding the delivery of their education and certain developmental milestones and expectations of the child at the end of attendance at a crèche or a primary school. What people tend to forget is the behind the scenes work and pressure that can occur from such professions. Obstacles are constantly being met in both professions both on a personal and professional level. The expectation to deliver a specific curriculum each year can lead to high levels of stress for both primary school teachers and childcare workers, including many other variables which influence levels of job stress and job satisfaction. The purpose of this study is to examine job stress between these two occupations, as well as examining their job satisfaction. The aim is to discover which group shows more stress and to determine if it is the actual aspect within the job which determines how stressed the participant might be. Using the job stressor and the job satisfaction questionnaires, along with a self-composed demographical data survey, different but important variables will be also used to analyse the two main hypotheses. Our hope is for this study to indicate if there are significant levels of job stress in these two professions and test between the groups which might indicate to have a higher amount of stress. Results of this study indicate that there are no significant difference in the results between primary school teachers and childcare workers in relation to job stress or job satisfaction.