Ancillary Responsibilities and Stress-Coping Mechanisms Among Public Elementary School Teachers of Barili District 1

Public elementary school teachers increasingly assume ancillary responsibilities beyond their formal teaching roles, which may contribute to occupational stress and affect overall well-being. Understanding how teachers manage these additional duties is essential for developing institutional support mechanisms. This convergent parallel mixed-methods research design aimed to determine the level of challenges associated with ancillary responsibilities, examine teachers’ stress-coping mechanisms, and explore significant relationships between challenges, coping strategies, and selected demographic variables among 148 public elementary school teachers in Barili District 1, Cebu Province, during School Year 2025–2026. Data were collected using a structured survey questionnaire and analyzed using mean, standard deviation, F-test, and Pearson r correlation. Findings revealed that teachers experienced a high level of challenges (overall M = 3.56), particularly in terms of sleepless nights (M = 4.01), loss of personal time (M = 3.96), weekend work (M = 3.96), and difficulty managing multiple tasks (M = 3.74). Coping mechanisms were moderately high (overall M = 3.64), with teachers predominantly utilizing religious coping strategies such as praying for help (M = 4.76) and trusting in divine support (M = 4.75), alongside problem-solving approaches (M = 4.44). Avoidant coping behaviors, including alcohol consumption (M = 1.76) and smoking (M = 1.69), were least practiced. Significant differences in perceived challenges were found according to years of teaching experience (F = 2.44, p = 0.049) and grade level taught (F = 3.27, p = 0.005). A significant positive correlation (r = 0.27, p < 0.05) indicated that coping efforts increased as challenges intensified, although coping strategies did not significantly vary across demographic groups (p > 0.05). The findings underscore teachers’ resilience but highlight the persistent burden of ancillary workloads, emphasizing the need for systemic interventions such as an ancillary task management toolkit to enhance teacher well-being and workload efficiency.