Stay at Home and Teach: A Comparative Study of Psychosocial Risks Between Spain and Mexico During the Pandemic

Abstract

Context: The emergency situation caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected different facets of society. Although much of the attention is focused on the health sector, other sectors such as education have also experienced profound transformations and impacts. This sector is usually highly affected by psychosocial risks, and this could be aggravated during the current health emergency. Psychosocial risks may cause health problems, lack of motivation, and a decrease of effectiveness at work, which in turn affect the quality of teaching. Despite their importance, there are hardly any studies that analyze psychosocial risks of non-university teachers during a health emergency such as that caused by COVID-19. Objectives: The aim of this study was to analyze the perception of COVID-19 and the psychosocial risks of non-university teachers comparing Spain and Mexico during the state of alarm caused by COVID-19. Methods: Data were collected from 421 non-university teachers (80.2% women; 56.3% from Mexico, 43.7% from Spain) aged 24-60 (M = 39.32, SD = 10.21) via a self-completed questionnaire during the pandemic from March to April 2020. Results: Data analysis suggests that inequity is the most important risk, followed by work overload. Teachers appear to be moderately satisfied with the information on COVID-19 and the measures taken, while their satisfaction with the available resources is lower. When comparing the two countries, significant differences can be observed in every risk considered except for social support, with lower levels in Mexican teachers compared to Spanish ones. In the case of the perception of COVID-19 and its impact, the perception in general of levels of information, measures, and resources is better among Mexican teachers than among Spanish ones, who present higher scores of the impact of the health emergency.

The Psychological State of Teachers During the COVID-19 Crisis: The Challenge of Returning to Face-to-Face Teaching

“…Another study conducted in March also in China showed that the prevalence of stress symptoms in teachers was 9.1% and that it was important to support them psychologically ( Zhou and Yao, 2020 ). In a study conducted in Spain at the beginning of the panemic, teachers also reported having workloads, psychosomatic problems, and exhaustion ( Prado-Gascó et al, 2020 ).…”

Burnout, Organizational Self-Efficacy and Self-Esteem among Brazilian Teachers during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Considering other studies carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic and associated problems faced by teachers directly contributing to professional exhaustion [ 34 , 39 ], more severe scores were expected in our study, since the percentage of teachers with high and moderate levels of burnout was low. Previous studies carried out studying burnout among Brazilian university professors [ 15 , 20 ], as well as among teachers from other levels of education, and according to a systematic review carried out by Montoya et al [ 29 ], also demonstrate this trend.…”

Facial Self-Touching and the Propagation of COVID-19: The Role of Gloves in the Dental Practice

“…While the pandemic of COVID-19 has posed a social and economic challenge it is especially serious in the sanitary field [ 28 ]. Without a cure for the virus, society must resort to control measures to avoid its propagation.…”