Examining the strategies used by school principals to cope with stress in an Istanbul context

Abstract

The Turkish educational system has been constantly changing over time. New systems are frequently introduced and when the results prove to be unsuccessful, a reversion of the former system emerges. Moreover, in order to identify ways and strategies to do this, it is also important to see the situation clearly and to decide the structure of support systems for principals. Survey design is used in this study. The population consists of principals of schools in the city of Istanbul in the academic year 2017–2018. The sample group consists of 161 principals from various public and private schools located on the European side of the city. Data were interpreted by % (percentage), t-test, one-way analysis of variance and the Scheffe test. The results indicate that the coping strategies, most commonly preferred by principals, are spending time with loved ones, building an optimistic perspective, and avoiding circumstances causing stress in order of importance.

Keywords: Coping strategies, public and private schools, school principal, stress.