Psychometric characteristics of the Teacher Stress Questionnaire by Travers and Cooper. Preliminary study

SUMMARY. Introduction: This study analyses the psychometric charac- teristics of the Teacher Stress Ques- tionnaire (TSQ; Travers & Cooper, 1996). The TSQ is composed of a general information section and of five scales: the Crown-Crisp Experi- ential Index (Crown & Crisp, 1979); the Type A Behavioural Style Inven- tory (Bortner, 1969); the Job Satis- faction Scale (Warr, Cook & Wall, 1979); the Sources of Pressure in Teaching Scale (Travers & Cooper, 1996); the Coping Style Inventory (Cooper, Sloan & Williams, 1988). Methods: The Italian version of TSQ was submitted to 320 teachers ran- domly drawn from a cross-section of school types. We verified the con- struct validity of the questionnaire in the Italian setting by means of the factor analysis and by measuring the internal consistency of the single scales. All the dimensions measured by the TSQ were compared for sub- groups of sample of all levels of teachers. Some features of the teacher’s personality and job which best predict those at “high risk” were highlighted. Results: From the factor analysis of each of the scales of the TSQ, several meaningful and reliable factors emerged. The inter- nal consistency of each scale meas- ured by the Cronbach’s revealed that satisfactory values were found. Teachers’ age and type of school were found to be determining factors with regard to all the dimensions of stress explored by the TSQ. Conclu- sions: The preliminary analysis of the reliability and validity of the Ital- ian version of the TSQ reveals that it constitutes a useful and reliable measure to analyse stress in the Ital- ian school setting according to the modern theories of occupational stress (Travers & Cooper, 1996). Nevertheless further studies are nec- essary which consider a more exten- sive and widespread sample in order to fully adjust the TSQ battery to the Italian school setting.