OCCUPATIONAL STRESS, WORK-LIFE BALANCE AND MULTIDIMENSIONAL WELL-BEING AMONG FEMALE SCHOOL TEACHERS IN CBSE-AFFILIATED INSTITUTIONS: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY FROM CHENNAI CITY

Female school teachers in CBSE-affiliated institutions in urban India operate within a demanding professional environment that intersects
continually with domestic and caregiving responsibilities, creating persistent pressure on their overall well-being. This study investigates the
relationship between occupational stress, work-life balance and a multidimensional view of well-being—physical, mental, emotional and
social—among female CBSE teachers in Chennai city. A cross-sectional survey was administered to 420 female teachers drawn from sixteen
CBSE schools located across North, South, Central and West Chennai, selected through stratified random sampling. The research instrument
combined items adapted from the Work-Life Balance Scale, the Occupational Stress Indicator and the WHO-5 Well-Being Index, yielding an
overall Cronbach's alpha of 0.842. Analytical techniques included percentage analysis, descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis,
correlation analysis and hierarchical multiple regression. The factor structure produced five distinct dimensions accounting for 71.4 percent of
the total variance: role overload, institutional flexibility, family support, personal coping strategies and time autonomy. Regression analysis
demonstrated that institutional flexibility, family support and personal coping were the strongest positive predictors of physical well-being,
while role overload and after-hours workload exerted significant negative effects. The moderation analysis revealed that years of teaching
experience significantly weaken the adverse impact of role overload, suggesting that seasoned teachers develop stronger coping repertoires
over time. The study extends prior work by adopting a multidimensional well-being framework and offers evidence-based recommendations
for school management, policymakers and teacher welfare committees operating within the CBSE ecosystem in metropolitan India.