Faculty/staff stress, physical activity and dietary behaviors in rural Louisiana

Significance: Promoting the health of school faculty and staff is an essential component of coordinated school health which can increase employee attendance and reduce health care costs (CDC, 2006).

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine school employees' stress coping styles, and to explore dietary, exercise and sleep behaviors.

Methods: Eligible employees (N=400) of a rural southeastern Louisiana school board health promotion program were sent an online questionnaire, including the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS). Of the 136 respondents, 71% were female, and 59.6% faculty members, 19.9% staff, 8.8% administrators, and 11.7% board members, retirees or “other.” Descriptive statistics was used to analyze data and analysis of variance to determine differences in coping styles.

Findings: The CISS measures different styles of coping styles used in stressful situations. Task Oriented Coping was used most (M=55.1), followed by Avoidance Coping (M=45.2), and Emotional Coping (M=38.3), with no significant differences. Males had a significantly higher use of Task Oriented Coping (M=58) than females (M=53.9), p=.043.

Nearly two-thirds of the employees participated in moderate physical activities, 3-5 days/week for 26-60 minutes at a time. Only 56% engaged in vigorous exercise, 70% for 3-5 days per week and 52.4% for 31-60 minutes. Further, 61% reported eating fruit and 48% vegetables, only 2-4 times per week or less. For sleep, 37.8% reported getting 5-6 hours per night and 60.5%, 7-8 hours.

Conclusion: Results indicate the need for providing health information and promoting behavior changes especially in the areas of nutrition and task-oriented coping.