Causal modelling of the influence of demographic variables on work-stimulated stress among early childhood educators in South Africa

Work-related stress has emerged as a pervasive global issue that needs to be investigated by specialists around the world. Work stress is a condition of pressure brought on by one's line of work and occurs when the demands of the job are too great for an employee's abilities or resources. The study was undertaken to examine the direct and indirect causal effect of some demographic variables on work-stimulated stress among early childhood educators in South Africa. Hence, the researchers developed and validated a model involving causal linkages between early childhood educators’ demographic variables such as age, gender, race, marital status, income and educational qualification, and work-stimulated stress. The study adopted an ex-post-facto research design. The sample comprised one hundred and twenty (120) early childhood educators across twenty (20) Early Childhood Education (ECE) centres. A stratified random sampling technique was used to select the early childhood educators for the study. One validated instrument on work-stimulated stress developed by the researchers on a four-point rating scale was used to collect the data for the study, while path analysis and multiple regression analysis were employed for data analysis. The findings of this study documented the more parsimonious model, which effectively predicts the influence of demographic variables on work-stimulated stress among early childhood educators. The results further indicated that three (Age, Gender, and Marital Status) out of the six predictor variables caused early childhood educators’ work-stimulated stress more than the other variables. The implications of these findings for education policymakers, administrators, and teachers are discussed. Key Words:Causal modelling, Demographic variables, childhood educators, early childhood, stress, work