Abstract:

The majority of workers, particularly teachers, encounter one type of psychosocial work hazard or another. Thus, psychosocial work hazards are prevalent in the Nigerian school environment. However, no research has been done to determine the impact of teachers' demographics on their psychosocial work hazards. Therefore, this study was required to investigate, using a cross-sectional survey design, the impact of primary school teachers' demographics (age, teaching experience, and location) on their psychosocial work hazards. This research was anchored on the tenets of the Job-Demand-Control-Support theory. This theory assumes that job characteristics affect employees' mental health. The theory illustrates how workplace demands, including a heavy workload, job insecurity, and pressure from the job, can result in psychosocial work hazards for employees. The idea is that people may deal with these challenges by employing their job abilities, which provide them autonomy and control over their work. The strategy functions by showing how stressed out people become when they are under a lot of strain at work. On the other hand, employees can lessen stress or any other psychological work hazards by having greater working autonomy and developing close bonds with their supervisor and coworkers. A sample of 254 primary school teachers drawn from different primary schools located in Southeast Nigerian states (Enugu, Imo, and Anambra States) comprised the research participants. This sample was drawn using a multistage sampling procedure. In the first stage, three states (Enugu, Imo, and Anambra States) were sampled from the five southeast states using a simple random sampling technique. In the second stage, a stratified random sampling technique was used to sample 86 primary schools from the sampled states. The stratification was based on the states. Finally, a simple random sampling technique was used to sample 254 primary school teachers from the sampled schools. Data were collected using a 28-item questionnaire on psychosocial work hazards. The questionnaire's items had an internal consistency reliability index of 0.74. Data collected were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) to test the hypotheses at 5% probability levels. The findings of the research revealed that age and location of teachers had significant impacts (p > .05) on their psychosocial work hazards. It was also found that teaching experience had no significant impact on teachers’ psychosocial work hazards (p > .05). These findings imply that the age and location of primary school teachers are major determinants of their psychosocial work hazards. Therefore, it was recommended that the demographics of teachers be taken into account as significant criteria during the recruitment of teachers.

Keywords:

Demographics, Primary school teachers, Psychosocial Work Hazards