School psychology trainers' identification of current stressors in the work lives of urban practitioners. A comparison study

The focus of this study is to investigate school psychology trainers' ident ification of current stressors in the work lives of practitioners. Surveys rating 40 stressors on a Likert-type scale were completed by 161 school psy chology graduate faculty, members of the School Psychology Educators Counci l of New York State. Survey results were compared to the job-related stress ors identified by New York City Psychologists using an almost identical que stionnaire. While there appears to be general agreement between faculty tra iners and practitioners on the identification and relative ranking of work- related stress, the faculty trainers consider those events to be more stres sful than do the practitioners. Faculty's recognition of the environmental forces that negatively impact upon the experience of school psychologists s hould provide impetus for the development of graduate programs that address stress prevention and/or coping strategies. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, In c.