Teaching is recognized as a stressful occupation (Borg & Riding, 1991; Kyriacou, 2001). Experiencing stress and burnout at work can be partly predicted by job characteristics (Borg & Riding, 1991; Burke & Greenglass, 1995; Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2009, 2011) as well as by factors within the individual (Bolger & Zuckerman, 1995; Cropley, Dijk, & Stanley, 2006). Even when exposed to similar environmental stressors, teachers differ in their perceptions of classroom stress and burnout (McCarthy, Lambert, O’Donnell, & Melendres, 2009). In understanding teachers' strain, both environmental and individual characteristics as well as their interactive effect have to be taken into account. Previous studies helped to understand the contribution of job characteristics and teachers' individual factors to classroom stress separately; however, their joint effect has not been sufficiently explored. While being a teacher is related to permanent relationship related stressors that can be processed either by repetitively and passively focusing on symptoms of distress or by constructively reflecting on the problem, we were interested in the role of teachers’ rumination and reflection: (1) as a predictor of classroom stress beyond reported job characteristics and (2) as a moderator of the relation between teachers' job characteristics and perceived classroom stress and burnout. The job characteristics that were previously documented as predictors of teachers' strain were conceptualized either as job demands (teacher reported workload) or as job resources (teacher reported autonomy, coworker support).

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