eng Science and Education Publishing American Journal of Educational Research 2327-6150 2018-09-13 6 9 1264 1270 10.12691/education-6-9-4 EDUCATION2018694 article Regisnei Aparecido de Oliveira Silva regisneioliveira@gmail.com 1 Lídia Andreu Guillo 2 Nestor Persio Alvim Agrícola 3 Department of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Goiás (UFG), Jataí, Goiás, Brazil Department of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Goiás (UFG), Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil Department of Physical Education, Federal University of Goiás (UFG), Jataí, Goiás, Brazil Background: This study aimed at correlating the levels of salivary cortisol and perceived stress in male teachers, in three periods of the academic year (March, July, December). Methods: The collection of saliva for cortisol measurement was performed at 6:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., and 5:30 p.m. on the same day that the BPSS-10 (Perceived Stress Scale, Brazilian version) was applied. The total concentration of cortisol was calculated using the area under the curve with respect to ground (AUCg). Results: When comparing the periods of the academic year, the mean stress score obtained in the month of March (16.46 ± 5.36) and December (17.54 ± 6.56) showed a significant difference compared with the mean results obtained in July (10.77 ± 5.64; p <0.01 and p <0.001. The AUCg value showed no significant difference between the periods analyzed (1.145 ± 0.450 µg/dL, 0.916 ± 0.341 µg/dL, and 1.031 ± 0.374 µg/dL, respectively). When analyzing the correlation between BPSS-10 values and total salivary cortisol throughout the school year, no statistical significance was found according to Pearson correlation coefficient (p = 0.554). Conclusions: The results suggest that the teachers, during the vacation period, might not perceive the physiological reactions of stress, so these reactions were not identified by the BPSS-10 used. http://pubs.sciepub.com/education/6/9/4/education-6-9-4.pdf salivary cortisol stress teachers public school