Abstract
Purpose. The purpose of this study was to measure the difference in job stress experienced by black and white assistant principals of high schools with predominantly white student bodies. Additionally, this study examined to what degree job stress is explained by the variables: age, years of experience in present job, academic level of achievement, marital status, salary, total years of experience, number of employees, size of student body. Methodology. The population for this study consisted of 31 black and 33 white assistant principals in charge of discipline in high schools with over 50% white students and less than 2,500 enrollment. The 31 black assistant principals comprised the total population of black assistant principals in five (5) selected urban areas of California. The instrument used to collect data for this study was the State Trait Anxiety Inventory by Spielberger, Gorsuch and Lushene. The instrument is a self-reporting, self-evaluation questionnaire which has been used in four recent studies. The analysis of data included the use of two methods, the ANOVA and multiple regression analysis. ANOVA was used to analyze the difference in job stress between black and white assistant principals. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the relationship between the stress measures A-State, A-Trait and the independent variables. Findings. The results of this study can be summarized in the following manner: (1) There was no significant difference between the amount of on-the-job related stress for black and white assistant principals in charge of discipline at a high school with a predominantly white student body. (2) There was significant difference between races in the general tendency toward stress. (3) The variables of age, years of experience in present job, academic level of achievement, marital status, salary, total years of experience, number of employees, and size of student body explained very little of the variation in job stress experienced by assistant principles. Major recommendation. This study needs to be replicated with a larger sample to see if the major finding holds up; that white assistant principals experience more stress on the job than their black counterparts.