Recent research has shown that lecturers are among the most stressed workers. A researcher wanted to know exactly what it was about being a lecturer that created this stress and subsequent burnout. She recruited 75 lecturers and administered several questionnaires that measured: Burnout (high score = burnt out), Perceived Control (high score = low perceived control), Coping Ability (high score = low ability to cope with stress), Stress from Teaching (high score = teaching creates a lot of stress for the person), Stress from Research (high score = research creates a lot of stress for the person), and Stress from Providing Pastoral Care (high score = providing pastoral care creates a lot of stress for the person). The outcome of interest was burnout, and Cooper's (1988) model of stress

Question

indicates that perceived control and coping style are important predictors of this variable. The remaining predictors were measured to see the unique contribution of different aspects of a lecturer's work to their burnout. How would you interpret the beta value for ‘stress from teaching'?

A. People with burnout are 36% more likely to be stressed when they teach.
B. As stress from teaching increases by a unit, burnout decreases by 0.36 of a unit. Therefore, stress from teaching protects against burnout.
C. As stress from teaching increases by 0.36 of a standard deviation, burnout also increases by 0.36 of a standard deviation.
D. As stress from teaching increases by a unit, burnout decreases by 0.36 of a unit. Therefore, stress from teaching protects against burnout.

Answer 1

Answer: B