School staff and teachers during the second year of COVID-19: Higher anxiety symptoms, higher psychological distress, and poorer mental health compared to the general population

Evaluating a cross-lagged panel model between problematic internet use and psychological distress and cross-level mediation of school administrator support on problematic internet use: The serial mediating role of psychological needs thwarting of online teaching and psychological distress

“…This can lead to persistent negative effects on their mental health ( 46 , 47 ). This is especially true for schoolteachers as recent findings showed that teachers' workloads were still heavy in the initial period after school campuses reopened ( 4 , 6 , 48 ). Addictive behaviors, potentially a response to negative emotions during school closure periods, may inhibit teachers' adaptation when facing normal offline teaching duties and may lead to increased psychological distress.…”

“…Regarding the paths included in the cross-level serial mediation model, given that the thwarting of psychological needs is affected by the surrounding environment ( 29 , 48 ), it is natural to consider that the support of school administrators may help alleviate teachers' PNT during online teaching. In the literature, when employees feel that their organizations treat them simply as tools, this organizational dehumanization contributes to employees' PNT and, indirectly, increases in psychological strain ( 49 ).…”

Teachers’ Psychological Distress and Work-Related Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Quebec (Canada)

“…Although levels of psychological distress among teachers were concerning already before the COVID-19 pandemic (Kidger et al, 2016), a systematic review conducted on teachers' mental health during the pandemic indicated that there has been a significant increase in psychological distress among teachers during this health emergency, especially in symptoms of anxiety and depression (Santiago et al, 2023). Hutchison et al (2022) in their study on teachers' mental health in British Columbia (Canada) confirmed that anxiety and depression were both higher among teachers than among the general population 1 year into the pandemic. The few available longitudinal studies on teachers' mental health during COVID-19 suggest that teachers' mental health kept deteriorating over time during the pandemic (Kim et al, 2022;Nabe-Nielsen et al, 2022;Santiago et al, 2023).…”

“…This is surprising in light of the well-established associations between teachers’ well-being and students’ learning and socio-emotional adjustment (Briner & Dewberry, 2007; Gray et al, 2017). It is even more surprising when the available studies on teachers’ mental health conducted during the pandemic all point to concerning levels of psychological distress among teachers, significantly higher than those reported in the general population (Hutchison et al, 2022; Kim et al, 2022; Kush et al, 2022; Santiago et al, 2023). It becomes evident that a better understanding of teachers’ mental health and associated risk and protective factors is essential to inform evidence-based interventions to reduce the negative impact of the pandemic on their psychological distress.…”

SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence among public school staff in Metro Vancouver after the first Omicron wave in British Columbia, Canada

“…At the end of 2021, the world experienced a massive increase in cases, with the emergence of the highly transmissible Omicron variant 28 29 . This rise in COVID-19 cases dramatically heightened levels of stress expressed in the public space, particularly among school workers 30 31 . As new cases also exceeded the testing capacity of health systems, BC re-prioritized viral testing towards selected groups around January 17, 2022.…”