Item Development for Measuring Stress Management Competencies of Secondary School Principals in Sarawak: Teachers’ Perceptions and Exploratory Factor Analysis

Stress management competencies in school leadership have become increasingly critical as secondary school principals face escalating administrative, instructional, and psychosocial demands. Despite growing evidence that leadership competencies play a vital role in mitigating teacher work stress, empirical studies examining principals’ stress management competencies—particularly within the Malaysian educational context—remain limited. This study aims to develop and validate a survey instrument to measure stress management competencies among secondary school principals in Sarawak based on teachers’ perceptions using an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) approach. The instrument was adapted from the Stress Management Competency Indicator Tool (SMCIT) developed by Yarker et al. (2008) and initially consisted of 66 items. Data were collected from 200 secondary school teachers across five government daily secondary schools in Sarawak. Data analysis was conducted using IBM SPSS version 27.0, employing Principal Component Analysis (PCA) with Varimax rotation. The EFA results led to the removal of 29 items due to low factor loadings and cross-loadings, yielding a final instrument comprising 37 items across three underlying dimensions of principals’ stress management competencies. All retained dimensions demonstrated strong construct validity and excellent internal consistency reliability. The findings provide empirical support for a psychometrically sound and contextually relevant instrument for assessing principals’ stress management competencies from teachers’ perspectives. This study contributes to educational leadership research by offering a validated measurement tool to support evidence-based leadership development, policy formulation, and targeted stress management interventions in Malaysian secondary schools.