Abstract:

Job stress can lead to unhealthy quality of life and decline in job performance. Educators who carry a huge amount of work load could experience negative stress and lead to decline in productivity and poor job satisfaction. Such situations could have been experienced by educators at local matriculation colleges in Malaysia due to their heavy responsibilities and work load. This prompts a survey to be conducted at a state matriculation college. A sample of 136 educators from the science and social science streams were interviewed. They provided their responses to 28 PWB items, 25 happiness items and 12 stress items which were adapted from relevant sources. Using Rasch measurement tools via Winsteps 3.90, their psychological well-being (PWB), happiness and stress level were examined. Response data collected from PWB, happiness, and stress domains were explored using the Wright map and Item Characteristics Curve (ICC) while differences in the attributes were examined using Differential Item Functioning (DIF) according to three different subgroups namely gender, distance travel to and from work and academic streams (science and social science). DIF statistics and DIF charts were used to examine the differences. The results show that majority of the respondents tend to agree with 14 items under the psychological domain, 20 items under the happiness domain but hard to agree with 12 items under the stress domain. DIF for PWB and stress items shows no significant difference between male and female lecturers but 8 items were significantly different under the happiness domain. DIF for PWB and happiness domains showed no significant difference between distance travel to and from work and academic streams except for one item. Detail outcomes of the results are explained in this paper.

Keywords:

Educators, psychological well-being, happiness, stress, Rasch measurement, Wright map, differential item functioning.