The study refers to the transactional model of stress in teaching elaborated by Travers and Cooper (1996) and aims to validate a model of risk of psychological strain associated to work related stress in teachers through the use of the statistical methodology Combination of Uniform and Binomial random variables for the analysis of ordinal data (CUB, Piccolo, 2003). The Italian version of the Teacher Stress Questionnaire (Travers e Cooper, 1996; Zurlo, Pes e Capasso, 2013) was submitted to 565 teachers randomly drawn from a cross-section of school levels of the Campania Region. Data were treated to CUB Models methodology to analyse the significativity of combined effects of individual and personality factors (age, sex, Type A personality and coping strategies), situational factors (sources of pressure in teaching), and moderator factors (job satisfaction) on self-reported psychological health conditions of teachers The methodology enabled to build a statistically valid model of teacher’s risk for psychological strain associated to work-related stress that includes the following variables: Type A personality; recourse to coping strategies problem-focused, objective, and focused on stress suppression; perceived levels of the source of stress Poor working conditions/Lack of resources; perceived levels of job satisfaction. Profiles of teachers at high and low risk for psychological strain associated to work-related stress are described and commented.
Keywords: Teacher Stress Questionnaire, sources of pressure in teaching, job satisfaction, psychological strain, CUB models