Short communication: Intervention on occupational stress among teachers in the middle schools in China

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the interventions on occupational stress among teachers in middle schools. The study group consists of 459 teachers (247 men and 212 women) from four middle schools. The control group consists of 502 teachers (271 men and 231 women). The three dimensions of occupational adjustment (including occupational stress, psychological strain, and coping resources) were measured with the Occupational Stress Inventory-Revised Edition (OSI-R) and the work ability was assessed with the Work Ability Index (WAI) among teachers. The integrated interventions (involving organizational and individual level intervention) were taken to the teachers in the study group. The main results were as follows. The scores of some scales of occupational role questionnaire and personal strain questionnaire decreased significantly and the scores of some scales of personal resources questionnaire and WAI increased significantly after intervening. This study suggested that interventions were efficient in reducing the teachers' occupational stressors, increased their coping resources and improved their work ability. Copyright (c) 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.