In any aspect of life, a calm and pleasant environment is critical to achieving satisfying results. Peaceful competitive working conditions, mental readiness, and psychological well-being are all essential determinants of a peaceful environment. In a competitive environment, it is commonly noted that certain stressful conditions occur (Fard & Karimi, 2015). If, on the other hand, the difficult situation is under control from numerous angles, one may easily perform and expect superior results. If not, the situation requires careful evaluation and attention (Farooq-Abbasi, 2015).

Natural or pure science has gained some traction in technological advancements such as missile and space technology. Similarly, exploratory activity such as archaeology or geology, where experimental work is valued, merits consideration to some extent. Furthermore, the establishment of a new, high-quality institution, as well as a favourable environment, is critical for the rest of the discipline and its application for the benefit of humanity in the country (Khan, Jabeen & Manzoor, 2020).

Unfortunately, health, physical education, recreation, and sport have never been considered among the issues of "importance" in the majority of the East. The lack of interest or ignorance among the ruling class and academics seems to be the most significant factor in the area of physical education and sports, while there may be many other factors at play. The reason for this is that, even though we are in the first quarter of the twenty-first century, we do not see any shining personalities in the field of applied research from this region of the world (Khan et al., 2020).

Teachers may experience psychological, cognitive, and social shock as a result of the transfer from a BA/B.Sc. to a BS program, particularly in the area of Health and Physical Education because this educational change has substantial distinctions. Teachers will be confronted with new teaching methods as well as a new living environment. Teachers may feel various sorts of stress as a result of these changes, which may negatively impact their mental health. Academic pressures such as conducting and marking regular tests, assignments, projects, and other college obligations may be encountered by teachers in this BS degree. Teachers become stressed as a result of their incompetence or failure to meet these criteria.

The availability of physical sports facilities like courts, fields, and track with playing equipment like Bat, Ball, Net, Shuttle, Racket, and other athletics and gymnastic activities, in addition to learning tools, transportation options, and other services offered on campus for students, can increase the stress levels of physical education teachers. Stress also has an effect on the physical and emotional well-being of teachers. For instance, teachers who experience high levels of stress perceive their own health as being worse, have low self-esteem, and are more prone to participate in risky behaviours (Acquadro et al., 2018). According to the stress and coping theory put forward by Lazarus and Folkman (1984), people are most susceptible to psychopathological experiences when they lack effective coping mechanisms. As a result, it was thought important and required to conduct an empirical study to identify and comprehend work-related stress, among college physical education professors.

Objectives

1. To measure the occupational stress, coping style and mental health colleges’ physical education teachers. (Frequency and Percentage)

2. To examine the significance of group mean differences in changing participants’ responses related to occupational stress, coping style and mental health. (Test of significance)

Hypotheses

H1: There is a significant gender-wise difference related to occupational stress, coping style and mental health. (t-Test)

H2: There is a significant marital status-wise difference related to occupational stress, coping style and mental health. (t-Test)

H3: There is a significant age-wise difference related to occupational stress, coping style and mental health. (ANOVA)

H4: There are significant teaching experience-wise differences related to occupational stress, coping style and mental health. (ANOVA)

H5: There is a significant qualification-wise difference related to occupational stress, coping style and mental health. (ANOVA)

H6: There is a significant nature of job-wise differences related to occupational stress, coping style and mental health. (ANOVA)

Research Philosophy

Two important problems are addressed by research philosophy: 1) What is knowledge, and 2) how can knowledge be documented and passed on? The positivist philosophy considers knowledge that may be objectively verified by observation. Furthermore, positivist philosophy implies that verifiable information may be documented and communicated using observable symbols like concepts and words (Babones, 2016). The researcher proposed positivist philosophy in light of these thoughts on research philosophy.

Research Approach

In social science research, a survey approach is often used to collect human perceptions, opinions, or positions on many subjects (Moser & Kalton, 2017). The current study was focused on the perceived stance of Physical Education Teachers (PETs); hence, a cross-section survey approach was employed to recruit participants using questionnaires. For such sociological studies, a survey is indicated as an ideal tool.

Population

A population is a group of individuals, things, or occasions that a researcher is interested in learning more about in order to provide data for some research topic. As a result, the research topic determines the population, with the researcher setting the boundaries of a particular population (Moser & Kalton, 2017). Physical education teachers at the college level in southern Districts of Punjab constituted the study's population.

Sample and Sampling

A sample is a subset of a population chosen for research. If a sample speaks for every segment of the population and all of its characteristics, it becomes representative of the entire population (Moser & Kalton, 2017). The information used in the formula originated from a pilot study that was carried out as part of the project planning stage to assess the questionnaire and gather some statistics for the formula to take into account when calculating sample size. The whole formula and the results of the computation are displayed in Table 3. The sample size was (n=176).

Giving the Details of Sample Selection

Reliability Statistics

In statistics, reliability refers to a measure's overall consistency; a measure is deemed highly dependable if it produces similar results in similar conditions (Carpenter, 2006). Cronbach's alpha is a measure of internal consistency in terms of item affinity and association. Cronbach's alpha is a coefficient indicating dependability (or consistency), not a statistical test, in technical terms.

Validity Statistics

Validity is a criterion for determining whether or not the concepts employed in data collection are appropriate for measuring the data they are designed to collect. The validity test aids in choosing the types of tests to run on data in order to evaluate hypotheses (Carpenter, 2006). The researcher utilized 'Factor-analysis' to obtain evidence regarding the validity of data in accordance with common survey data validity criteria.

Descriptive Tools

Descriptive data refers to the study's individual variables. Tables were utilized to show descriptive statistics on the frequency of sample groups based on demographic characteristics, as well as a table of descriptive data on the study variables.

Tests of Significance

To assess the group mean differences based on the demographic characteristics of respondents, tests of significance (TOS) are performed. In the current study, the t-Test was used for two groups, while the ANOVA was applied for more than two groups. The age, gender, designation, qualification, and teaching experience of physical education teachers were tested in this study to see if there are any group means differences. The statistics for assessing the hypotheses were computed using T-tests.

This part of the research work presented the main results obtained after the application of statistical tests to test the set hypotheses and achieve the desired objectives as well. Therefore, the analysis and interpretation of data are presented. This chapter is categorized into various sections. It included both descriptive as well as inferential statistics to assess the research variables.

Demographic Attributes

The descriptive results described the frequency and percentage of demographic attributes as well as item-wise analysis of the questionnaires. The analysis of descriptive statistics helps in understanding the research variables under study.

Ages of the Participants

Gender of the Participants

Teaching Experience of the Participants

Marital Status of the Participants

Education of the Participants

Designation of the Participants

This section of the thesis deals with the frequency distribution of the response rate of each question given in the instrument for measuring an important variable of occupational stress. This distribution may help the readers to understand the nature of each item that how the respondents responded to the questions related to the measurements of occupational stress.

Frequency distribution of Occupational Stress

Frequency distribution of Mental Health

Frequency distribution of Coping Stress

Results of t-Test on Gender-based Differences

Results of t-Test on Marital Status-wise Differences

Results of ANOVA on Age-wise Differences

Results of ANOVA on teaching experience-wise Differences

Results of ANOVA on education level-wise Differences

Results of ANOVA on education level-wise Differences

Results of ANOVA on Nature of Job-wise Differences

Research in the relevant area has found that the teaching community reported enormous occupational stress and poor mental health in comparison with other professions (Ahola et al., 2014; Bauer et al., 2014; Havermans et al., 2016). In the current study, occupational stress, mental health and copying styles of the college teachers in Southern Punjab, Pakistan were examined. When comparing two different genders, the analyzed data indicates that female lecturers were facing higher reported higher mean scores on occupational stress, mental health, and copying style as compared with male lecturers. These findings corroborate previous results reporting that there was a positive relationship between occupational stress and mental health in various working populace (Feyer et al., 2000). The same findings have been reported from other results indicating mental health problems in the teaching community (Chiu & Lam, 2007; Korkmaz, Cavlak, & Telci, 2011; Nurul et al., 2010). Poor mental health in relation to occupational stress in the teaching community is indeed not a new phenomenon. It is researched that female teachers experience more occupational stress and health problems as compared with male teachers. In the current study, male college teachers reported lesser occupational stress when compared with female lecturers. These findings, therefore, corroborated with some previous studies where female teachers reported significantly higher mean scores on occupational stress and mental health issues (Bíró, Ádány, &Kósa, 2011; Stallman, 2010).

However, the current study indicated that married and unmarried lecturers reported no statistically significant differences of opinion regarding the variables under study. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was applied to examine the group mean differences based on Age, teaching experience, qualifications, and respective field of profession among college teachers. The analyzed inferences further showed significant age-wise differences in all the research variables except coping strategy. Moreover, the results of the current study revealed insignificant teaching experience-wise differences in all the research variables (coping strategy, occupational stress and mental health). The analyzed inferences showed significant differences based on different levels of education regarding the research variables except for coping strategy. The analyzed inferences showed significant differences based on the nature of the job of lecturers regarding the research variables except for coping strategy. Past results revealed that on a personal level, it is often the case that an individual is unable to deal with the job load and surroundings, which results in a negative expression. Teaching is often seen as high-stress work when compared to teaching experience (Edwards & Burnard, 2003).

The analyzed data indicates that female lecturers were facing higher reported higher mean scores on occupational stress, mental health, and copying style as compared with male lecturers. The current study has several limitations that need to be highlighted. The first limitation of the current study is that the researcher used cross-sectional data from the southern region of Punjab, Pakistan. Longitudinal studies are strongly recommended; however, longitudinal studies need a larger financial budget and time too that were not available for the present research work. The second limitation deals with college-level professionals as occupational stress may vary among professions, therefore; the findings of the current study may not be generalized to other professions such as schools and universities.

To enhance the mental health of the teaching community in general and lecturer in particular, those interventional programs may be established within institutional organizations both at regional and national levels that help them assist to reduce distress and to promote copying skills to deal with their critical incidents on their work. Hence, future research may deal with how to develop such an interventional program and also to evaluate the effectiveness of these programs to promote and develop mental health and work performance of the teaching community.

One-day workshops and seminars on managing work-related stress must be conducted on a regular basis to train them on how to deal with occupational stress. Physical recreational activities must be encouraged in the workplace as these activities proved very helpful in improving mental health and reducing stress (Rippentrop et al., 2005; Skaalvik&Skaalvik, 2011).

To enhance the mental health of the teaching community in general and lecturer in particular, those interventional programs may be established within institutional organizations both at regional and national levels that help them assist to reduce distress and to promote copying skills to deal with their critical incidents on their work. Hence, future research may deal with how to develop such an interventional program and also to evaluate the effectiveness of these programs to promote and develop mental health and work performance of the teaching community.

One-day workshops and seminars on managing work-related stress must be conducted on a regular basis to train them on how to deal with occupational stress. Physical recreational activities must be encouraged in the workplace as these activities proved very helpful in improving mental health and reducing stress (Rippentrop et al., 2005; Skaalvik&Skaalvik, 2011).