COVID-19 and Teachers’ Somatic Burden, Stress, and Emotional Exhaustion: Examining the Role of Principal Leadership and Workplace Buoyancy

Abstract

The role of two leadership factors (autonomy-supportive and autonomy-thwarting leadership) and one personal resource (workplace buoyancy) were examined as predictors of three teacher outcomes: somatic burden, stress related to change, and emotional exhaustion. Data were collected from 325 Australian teachers in May, 2020 during the first wave of COVID-19. During this time, many Australian children were being taught remotely from home, while other students were attending schools in-person. Findings showed that autonomy-supportive leadership was associated with greater buoyancy and, in turn, lower somatic burden, stress related to change, and emotional exhaustion (while controlling for covariates, including COVID-19 work situation). Autonomy-thwarting leadership was positively associated with emotional exhaustion. In addition, autonomy-supportive leadership was indirectly associated with the outcomes. The findings provide understanding of factors that may be harnessed to support teachers during subsequent waves of COVID-19 and other future disruptions to schooling that may occur.

Patterns of Teachers’ Occupational Well-Being During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Relations to Experiences of Exhaustion, Recovery, and Interactional Styles of Teaching

“…Thus, the rest of the teachers (72.4% in total) belonged to profiles in which occupational stress was higher than average (i.e., profile groups 1, 2, and 3). Therefore, the present findings can be seen to compliment previous literature by concurring that the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic may have been stressful time for the teachers (MacIntyre et al, 2020;Collie, 2021). However, while many teachers reported being quite stressed, the findings also complemented the previous literature by illustrating that there was also more than one quarter of teachers who did not experience high levels of occupational stress nor more than somewhat minor increase in their stress due to the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

“…In addition, UNESCO (2021) has stated that confusion and stress for teachers was one of the adverse consequences of school closures. Recent findings support this view, such as MacIntyre et al (2020), who found that teachers experienced substantial levels of stress during school closures (see also Salmela-Aro et al, 2020;Collie, 2021). Li et al (2020) found that the prevalence of anxiety among teachers was almost three times more common during the COVID-19 pandemic than had been reported previously.…”

“…This could perhaps be due to individual differences in ways how teachers' job-related and personal resources can outweigh the work-related demands (e.g., Berjemo-Toro et al, 2016). It is common that teachers report high levels of occupational stress (Kyriacou, 2001;Travers, 2017), and recent studies indicate that during the time of school closures following the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers were also stressed because of the situation (MacIntyre et al, 2020;Collie, 2021). The results indicate that the increase in stress due to the COVID-19 pandemic was particularly high among the teachers identified with highest stress and work engagement (i.e., profile group 3).…”

“…Studies examining teacher well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic have identified different stressors as well as workrelated demands and resources from the time of school closures. For instance, results obtained by Collie (2021) indicate that during school closures, autonomy-thwarting leadership was related to teachers' increased experiences of emotional exhaustion, while autonomy-supportive leadership increased workplace buoyancy, which in turn decreased teachers' somatic burden, stress, and emotional exhaustion. Moreover, Kim and Asbury (2020) concluded that teachers' experiences of uncertainty about the situation and worry they had for vulnerable students were the central stressors during the first six weeks of the lockdown.…”

The relationship between burnout syndrome and boreout syndrome of secondary school teachers during COVID-19

“…Teachers in fact had to change the method of teaching from traditional to distance learning, which, among other things, brought up a problem with ICT equipment of schools (Košir et al, 2020). Although a relatively long time has passed, changes in school attendance often change overnight, which places extremely high demands on teachers' flexibility (Collie, 2021). Many teachers also encounter negative attitudes from parents of students or society because distance learning requires greater involvement of parents in the education of their children, which does not suit many.…”