Abstract
The Problem. The primary purposes of the study were to identify those work-related areas which cause stress in California public school superintendents, to gather significant data indicating the severity of stress in these areas, and to investigate the relationship of identified variables to stress in those involved in the study. Research Methodology. A survey methodology was used in this study. A questionnaire was mailed to a representative sample of all California public school superintendents requesting information describing the type of position they held and a differential stress rating scale utilizing the semantic differential technique. Descriptive statistics were calculated on all phases of the study and all results which were determined to be significant were those that indicated a variability of .05 or lower when a one-way analysis of variance was completed. Findings. This study clearly indicates that there were no significant findings when the ten identified concept areas are studied in combination with the seven listed demographic variables. Further investigation also indicated that there were significant results when the bipolar descriptors were grouped by category of descriptor. The number of significant findings was a very small percentage of the total number possible (seventeen of a possible two hundred and ten). Only eleven of those seventeen proved to have significant mean differences with the Tukey Multiple Range Test. Conclusions. None of the data gathered and calculated in this study were significant. Recommendations. Greater research is needed in providing more in-depth study of both areas causing stress and the effects of certain variables on stress.