Principal Leadership Styles and Emotional Intelligence as Predictors of Occupational Stress among Secondary School Teachers in Rivers State

Abstract

This study investigated principal leadership styles and emotional intelligence as predictors of occupational stress among secondary school teachers in Rivers State. This study was guided by three research questions and three corresponding hypotheses. The study adopted a correlational research design while the population for the study was 11,258 secondary school teachers in Rivers state. A sample of 411 respondents was used for the study. The instruments used for the study were, Principal Leadership Styles Inventory (PLSI), Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS) and Occupational Stress Scale (OSS). The instruments were validated by three experts in Educational Psychology and also Measurement and Evaluation from the University of Port Harcourt. To ensure the reliability of the instruments, Cronbach alpha () statistics was used for the three instruments. The coefficient indices of 0.78, 0.88 and 0.67 were
obtained for the principal leadership styles, emotional intelligence and occupational stress respectively. Simple regression and multiple regression were used to analyze the data that were generated. Results revealed that principal leadership styles and emotional intelligence independently and collectively predict occupational stress among secondary school teachers in Rivers State. Based on the finding, it was recommended that the school principals and
government should provide all the necessary facilities that would help ease stress among teachers in order to enhance their productivity.