Abstract

Anxiety is an important consideration in teaching, with implications for classroom success. Taking into account that rather little is known about the associations between psychological coping and the perception of stress among school teachers, the main aim of this study was to assess the relationship between teachers’ anxieties and coping responses, in a sample of 158 pre-school and primary school teachers. School level, gender and length of teaching experience differences were also examined. Results suggest that all sources of anxiety (evaluation, classroom management and pedagogy) were associated with coping by seeking support and coping by suppressing competing activities. Primary school teachers scored significantly higher than pre-school teachers on all sources of anxiety, and significantly lower on coping by seeking support. Female teachers scored significantly higher than male on coping by seeking support and male teachers significantly higher than female on coping by suppressing competing activities. Limitations of the study and practical implications are briefly discussed.