Teacher Distress and the Role of Experiential Avoidance

Abstract

Teachers’ psychological wellbeing is important for teachers and students, but is highly stressful, particularly in special education. We examined the role of experiential avoidance (EA) in the wellbeing of 529 middle and elementary school teachers. EA involves the tendency to avoid thoughts, feelings, and other internal experiences even when doing so causes long-range consequences. Using a teacher-specific measure, we investigated its relationship to stress associated with student misbehavior and limited social support. We assessed EA’s relationship to burnout and depression, finding EA significantly and moderately correlated with depression and all scales of Maslach’s Burnout Inventory. Mediation analyses showed EA mediated the relationship between stress associated with student behavior and measures of wellbeing. We found 26.8% of teachers mildly, 8.9% moderately, and 2.8% moderately severely or severely depressed. This evidence concurs with studies showing the value of mindfulness-based interventions and points to the utility of implementing interventions aimed at decreasing EA in teachers.

Mindfulness-based and cognitive-based stress prevention in student teachers (startklar): study protocol of a randomised controlled trial

“…The authors found that 25.13% of their sample of grammar school teachers exceeded the clinical cut-off 16. The highest proportion of teachers (approximately 24%) showed conspicuities on the scale ‘emotional tiredness’, which was also reported in another study 9 16. Moreover, a further study revealed that student teachers reported even higher rates of ‘emotional tiredness’ than did qualified teachers 17…”

“…Experiential avoidance is the tendency to avoid internal experiences like thoughts and feelings even if doing so causes negative consequences. The authors found that experiential avoidance correlated with depression and burnout symptoms, and that it mediated the relationship between external stressors and personal well-being 9. Schmitz et al found that excessive self-demands at the beginning of the teaching career are a risk factor for later invalidity 9…”

“…However, these studies do not cover the construct of mindfulness, even though research has already documented its positive influence 18 25. Moreover, mindfulness is an effective strategy against experiential avoidance, which is one of the risk factors for depression and burnout symptoms 9. Mindfulness is defined as awareness that arises through purposely paying attention, in the present moment, non-judgementally.…”

What If Violent Behavior Was a Coping Strategy? Approaching a Model Based on Artificial Neural Networks

“…Regarding stress, it is proven that it is a predictive variable, coinciding with the stress model [1] and with further studies [3,34,52,53]. It is necessary to learn to use the most functional coping strategies and to manage emotions and stress [25,26,28,29].…”

Teacher Profiles of Psychological Capital and Their Relationship with Burnout

“…Research into burnout has shown a high prevalence in teachers [1][2][3], who are one of the professional groups most prone to suffer from it [4,5]. There is generally a broad consensus characterizing burnout as a syndrome in which three groups of symptoms are present: Emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment at work [6].…”