Abstract:

Job satisfaction is related to numerous factors that affect the general perception of life and is represented in scientific research, while job satisfaction is not only investigated as a productivity factor, but also as a valuable goal in itself. Meaningfulness of work presupposes the purpose that a person finds in his work, which is also related to job satisfaction. Coping strategies with stress are an important factor in everyday life, and ways of coping with stress have proven to be important moderators in reducing stressful situations.

In this paper, we wanted to determine the connection between job satisfaction, meaningfulness of work and coping strategies with stress. One of the problems in the paper was to determine whether stress coping strategies predict meaningfulness of work. We also wanted to determine the difference between different subject teachers in the mentioned variables.

Research (Ivanković, 2020) that dealt with the connection between well-being and strategies for dealing with stress in elementary school teachers showed that positive stress strategies are positively related to life satisfaction, i.e. job satisfaction, while negative stress coping strategies positively associated with a lower level of life satisfaction. People who find meaning in their work are more satisfied with their work (Allan et al., 2016).

307 teachers in primary schools in the Republic of Croatia, in the City of Zagreb, participated in this research, including 116 classroom teachers and 191 subject teachers. The research results showed that meaningfulness of work, job satisfaction and positive stress coping strategies are positively related, and that negative stress coping strategies are negatively related to a lower level of job satisfaction and meaningfulness of work. Furthermore, the results showed that positive strategies for dealing with stress contribute to greater meaningfulness of a teacher's work, while negative strategies with stress contribute to less meaningfulness of a teacher's work. Teachers who work with younger children showed greater job satisfaction as well as job meaningfulness compared to teachers of certain subjects who work with older children.

These results indicate that the factors meaningfulness and job satisfaction are important constructs in the work of teachers that positively affect psycho-physical health and the educational process as a whole.

Keywords:

Job satisfaction, meaningfulness of work, coping strategies with stress.