Educational systems worldwide have increased the responsibilities and tasks of principals, seeking to improve schools’ performance. As a result, the role of principals has become increasingly challenging and stressful, having a negative impact on principals’ attraction and retention, job satisfaction as well as their mental and physical health. This paper explores how a group of 21 Chilean school principals working in the Valparaiso Region experience stress, based on individual semi-structured interviews about their subjective experiences in their role. Findings suggest that principals consider their work to be challenging, associated with several demanding situations in their schools which contribute to feeling stress. Stressors identified by principals can be organized into three groups: work-related, such as dealing with bureaucratic pressures and lack of support from municipal authorities; relationship-related, such as managing relations with a wide range of school actors and the emotional burden of interacting with them; and time-related, such as being always available to solve problems and feeling isolated in this task.

全世界的教育系统都增加了校长的职责和任务，以寻求改善学校的表现。结果，校长的角色变得越来越具有挑战性和压力感，对校长的吸引力和保持力，工作满意度以及他们的身心健康产生了负面影响。本文基于在瓦尔帕莱索地区工作的21名智利学校校长的个人主观经历进行了半结构化访谈，探讨了他们如何承受压力。调查结果表明，校长认为他们的工作具有挑战性，与学校中几种苛刻的情境有关，这些情境会导致压力感。校长确定的压力源可以分为三类：与工作相关的，例如应付官僚压力和缺乏市政当局的支持；与关系有关，例如管理与众多学校行为者的关系以及与他们互动的情感负担；和时间相关，例如在解决此任务时总是可以解决问题和感到孤立。