Neuroticism Personality Trait and Stress Resilience among Teacher Counsellors in Secondary Schools in Kakamega County, Kenya

Abstract

Personality traits comprise of behavior patterns that reveal the individual’s character and expose their abilities. An individual’s reaction to any given situation is dictated by their personality. Personality could however be compromised by lack of stress resilience. Stress is physio-mental anguish resulting from prolonged frustration and sensed defeat. Resilience rejuvenates, alleviates anguishes and restores normalcy. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between Neuroticism personality trait and stress resilience among teacher counsellors in secondary schools within Kakamega County, Kenya. The study was guided by the General Adaptation Syndrome theory of stress management and Seligman’s 3P’s theory of resilience. The correlational survey design was used. The target population was 327 teacher counsellors in sub county secondary schools in Kakamega County Kenya. The sample size of 181 teacher counsellors who were the participants was selected through purposeful sampling; stratified random sampling and simple random sampling. Data collection was done using questionnaires adopted from the Big Five Inventory (BFI) tool which has a published reliability coefficient of 0.8, and the Ego-Resiliency Scale (ER89) that has a published reliability coefficient of 0.7. A pilot study was done in neighboring Bungoma County. Content validity and expert opinion from psychology department Laikipia University Kenya was used to verify the validity of the instruments. Data was presented in frequency tables, graphs and charts and was analyzed using Pearson’s correlation. The findings indicated that Neuroticism personality trait was negatively correlated to stress resilience at a coefficiency of 0.3678. Consequently, the hypothesis was rejected at the significant level of .05. Results showed strong relationship between neuroticism and stress resilience. It was concluded that Neuroticism had characteristics that empowered individuals to be single-minded and self-motivated. These empowering characteristics were found to be hidden in the repercussions of the neurotics’ supportive traits. They caused the neurotic teacher counsellors to embrace their responsibilities with enthusiasm and competence. The study recommends that the teacher counsellors must understand their personality traits and know how personality influences the advancement of resilience. Neuroticism personality trait will improve the teacher counsellors’ competence.