Effect of an Emotional Intelligence Intervention Program on Coping Strategies Among Government School Teachers

Abstract

Teaching is regarded to be among the careers in which employees are subjected to high levels of stress. Teacher stress is a complex and enduring problem. Hence, it is highly crucial that teachers learn ways of coping or managing with stressors inherent in teaching. Studies have shown that emotionally intelligent individuals can cope better with the challenges of life and control their emotions more efficiently than those who cannot. Thus, the present study aimed at developing an emotional intelligence intervention program and assessing its effect on the coping strategies among schoolteachers. Simple random sampling technique was adopted to select 47 teachers (25 women and 22 men) working in government schools in Erode district as sample for the study. An emotional intelligence intervention program that was tailor-made by the researcher was implemented on the experimental group. Results revealed that the emotional intelligence intervention program was very effective in helping teachers use effective coping strategies to combat stress.