Revisiting the Buffering Hypothesis: Social Support, Work Stressors, Stress Related Symptoms, and Negative Affectivity in a Sample of Public School Teachers
This
study tests if forms of social support have a buffering effect on the relationship
between actual workplace risk job stress and psychosomatic work stress taking
into account Negative Affectivity (NA). The
buffering effect maintains that social support acts a moderator variable that
enables individuals to withstand the adverse impact of work stress on
psychological states such as psychosomatic stress and job stress. Additionally, as suggested in the job stress literature, a measure that
assesses an individual’s predisposition to be effected by the presence of work
stressors, negative affectivity, which is a personality variable that involves
the experience of negative emotions and poor self-concept, is included. Low negative affectivity is characterized by frequent states of calmness
and confidence while high negative affectivity with unease and lack of confidence. Negative affectivity may
influence the degree to which stressful events affect the level of stress
experienced by individuals. Thus previous studies that report a relationship
between work stressors and work related stress symptoms may overstate the
actual impact that stressors have because negative affectivity has not been
incorporated as a control variable. This study will also examine whether social
support continues to buffer the relationship between stressors and stress symptoms
when NA is included in the model. Based on the relevant literature, hypotheses are stated on the effect that NA has on the stressor-stress
symptom relationship and if social support buffers (moderates) the relationship
between stressors with NA as a model variable. These hypotheses are tested with
a sample of urban, public school teachers from a large metropolitan school
district. Implications of study outcomes and suggestions for future research
are discussed.
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