Abstract: Through the empirical investigation, the effect of social support and work stress on college teachers' job performance is studied. Results are as follows: (1) College teachers' work stress is higher, the stress is caused by high job demand, low pay, and long working hours for teaching and scientific research; teachers get more social support from families and friends rather than from colleagues and superiors. And they get more emotional support, less instrumental support and informational support from society. (2) Five dimensions of work stressor are significantly positive correlated with the symptom of stress. The work stressor due to heavy workload and long working hours is significantly negative correlated with the contextual performance; while high job demand, low pay, heavy workload, and long working hours are significantly negative correlated with task performance. (3) Both work stressor and social support possess the certain prediction function on the symptoms of stress; the symptoms are the intermediary variables affecting the work performance by work stressor and social support. (4) Social support has a directly positive effect on contextual performance, however not on task performance. Finally, according to the results of empirical analysis, from the five aspects of school, leadership, family, friend, and oneself, the measures for improving the work stress management and social support for college teachers are put forward.

Key words: work stress, social support, college teacher, the symptom of stress, job performance