Concerns and mental health of teachers from digitally underdeveloped countries regarding the reopening of schools after the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Torn between the decision to return to school classrooms or continue holding online classes during COVID-19, teachers around the world feel great uncertainty. OBJECTIVE: Bearing in mind that the study of mental health during the pandemic is of great importance for vulnerable categories, and given the role of teachers in society, the aim of this research is to assess teachers’ concerns and anxiety before the start of the school year, and also to examine the factors related to them and propose measures in line with the results. METHODS: The study was conducted as a cross-sectional study before the start of the 2020/2021 school year. The research sample consisted of 286 teachers. For the purposes of this research, a special questionnaire was constructed consisting of a general questionnaire and a Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale (GAD-7). RESULTS: The strongest predictor of a teacher’s answer that they were concerned about the reopening of schools was their concern for their own life and health and for the life and health of their family members, followed by the amount of information received about COVID-19, and, finally, older age. Only 2% of teachers had mild anxiety. CONCLUSIONS: This research indicated that it is necessary to examine in more detail the degree of teachers’ concern and its impact on their functionality and work process. It is also necessary to repeat the research on the mental health status of teachers and implement procedures in the form of a regular screening program of the mental health status of teachers or implement procedures of support in concern management.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on risk of burn-out syndrome and recovery need among secondary school teachers in Flanders: A prospective study

“…Moreover, when teachers are not teaching and thus decompressing, they might start to self-reflect and doubt themselves opposed to when they get immediate validation while they are teaching. These findings are in line with other research showing teachers to have high levels of stress and anxiety about the anticipation of schools reopening (10,40,50).…”

“…Moreover, due to the lockdown measures they were not able to lean on their social network to decompress. These findings are in line with other research demonstrating an increase in anxiety, burn-out syndrome and a decrease in general quality of life when teachers had to return to the classroom while the pandemic was still ongoing ( 10 , 11 ).…”

“…In comparison with other at-risk groups, such as healthcare workers and youngsters, research on mental health of teachers during the pandemic is scarce. Previous studies focusing on mental health in teachers during the pandemic mainly used a cross-sectional design (10,(27)(28)(29)(30)(31), and thus precluding comparison with data collected prior to the pandemic. In general, these studies found increased levels of depression, anxiety and high levels of stress during the pandemic (27,(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37).…”

“…After the first lockdown (i.e., March–April 2020), they moved to hybrid learning (i.e., a mixture of digital and face-to-face teaching), and thus they had to figure out how to combine online and face-to-face teaching, or teaching from home one week and in person the next week ( 9 ). Returning to the classroom also meant that teachers had to put themselves and their families at risk for infection while the pandemic was still ongoing ( 6 , 10 , 11 ).…”

The Mediating Role of Teacher Identification in the Relationship Between Psychological Distress and Teacher Satisfaction During COVID-19

“…Based on the JD-R model and the findings of previous empirical studies, for example 12 the current study aimed to investigate the role of job resources (ie, professional identification and teaching satisfaction) on psychological distress in the context of the current pandemic (job demands) and examined the following hypotheses: H1: Hopelessness will be negatively related to teaching satisfaction. H2: Depression will be negatively related to teaching satisfaction.…”