Ahmad Baba Muhammad

  Objective : The increasing demands of the teaching profession, especially in private schools, have made work-related stress a major contributor to the decline of mental well-being among teachers. Understanding the relationship between work stress and mental well-being is crucial in order to help teachers deal with this overwhelming problem. This study examined work stress as a correlate of mental well-being among private secondary school teachers, and to assess whether gender, marital status, and teaching experience moderate this relationship. Methods : A descriptive correlational research design was adopted for this study. The target population of the study was 1,253 private school teachers and a sample of size of 424 private school teachers was utilised using stratified random sampling method. The instruments utilised for data collection are the School Teachers Job Stressor Scale (STJSS) and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). Pearson correlation and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to analyze the data. Results: The results showed a significant negative correlation between work stress and mental well-being (r = -0.767, p < 0.001). Gender significantly moderated the relationship (β = .187, p < 0.001), with male teachers showing greater susceptibility. Marital status (β = -0.191, p < 0.001) and teaching experience (β = .187, p < 0.001) also significantly moderated the relationship, indicating that married and less experienced teachers were more negatively affected by work stress. Conclusion : The study concludes that high work stress significantly diminishes the mental well-being of private school teachers, with the magnitude of this impact varying significantly across demographic variables such as gender, marital status, and years of teaching experience.