Teachers during the COVID-19 Era: The Mediation Role Played by Mentalizing Ability on the Relationship between Depressive Symptoms, Anxious Trait, and Job Burnout

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 outbreak caused severe changes in school activities over the past two years. Teachers underwent a re-planning of their teaching approaches, shifting from face-to-face teaching formats to remote ones. These challenges resulted in high levels of burnout. The identification of risk/protective factors contributing to burnout is crucial in order to inform intervention programs. Thus, we hypothesized a mediation role of teachers’ mentalizing ability (processing of emotions, a component of mentalized affectivity) on the relationship between depression, anxiety, and depersonalization (burnout dimension). Two reverse models were computed. Job satisfaction, teachers’ age and gender, school grade, and length of teaching experience served as covariates. Methods: 466 (M(sd) = 46.2 (10.4) years) online questionnaires were completed by Italian teachers of primary (n = 204) and middle (n = 242) schools. Measures of burnout, depression, anxiety, and mentalization were administered. Results: The findings corroborated our hypotheses: in all models, processing emotions served as a mediator on the relationship between depression, anxiety, and depersonalization, and on the reciprocal one. Job satisfaction positively impacted processing emotion, and negatively impacted depression and depersonalization; women teachers reported high levels of the anxious trait. Conclusions: Overall, it can be concluded that the ability to mentalize has a beneficial impact on teachers’ well-being. Policymaking, clinical, and research implications were discussed.

The role of teachers' socio-emotional competence in reducing burnout through increased work engagement

“…The effect of perceived stress on burnout is amplified in difficult and challenging situations, as emerged world-wide during the COVID-19 pandemic (Lizana et al, 2021;Pellerone, 2021;Vargas Rubilar and Oros, 2021;Levante et al, 2023). In a recent study, Geraci et al (2023) found that the pandemic emergency did indeed increase the risk of teachers' burnout and negatively impacted their level of work engagement, which is a persistent, positive and satisfying work-related mental state, characterized by vigor, absorption and dedication to work activities (Schaufeli et al, 2002).…”

Programa psicoeducativo aplicado en el profesorado como mecanismo de retribución a las escuelas participantes de una investigación

“…Investigaciones desarrolladas en el profesorado, han evidenciado la sobrecarga laboral manifestada en niveles altos de ansiedad, depresión y estrés (Levante et al, 2023;Mondragon et al, 2023). Lo anterior dificulta la calidad de desempeño y del trabajo docente y consecuentemente en los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje del estudiantado, dada la reciprocidad en la relación entre profesor-estudiante .…”

Physical activity habits prevent psychological distress in female academic students: The multiple mediating role of physical and psychosocial parameters

“…Although these restrictive measures were effective in containing the spread of the infection [ [93] , [94] , [95] , [96] ], they negatively impacted the mental health of the general population [ [97] , [98] , [99] , [100] ]. People showed high levels of depressive symptoms, anxiety, concern, and psychological distress [ [101] , [102] , [103] , [104] , [105] ]. In addition, lockdowns led people to change their behaviour and routines, also in terms of physical activity, eating habits, sunlight exposure, and social interactions [ 97 , [106] , [107] , [108] , [109] , [110] , [111] , [112] , [113] , [114] , [115] ].…”