The relationship between global distress, mentalizing and well-being in a German teacher sample

Abstract

Many studies have linked global distress including higher psychological symptom severity and high levels of stress with low levels of well-being among teachers, indicating a need to identify and empirically evaluate protective factors. Mentalizing—the capacity to understand behavior in terms of intentional mental states—may be a candidate protective factor to mediate this association, enhancing well-being in the face of high levels of global distress. The present study examines whether the capacity to mentalize can buffer subjectively experienced stress and psychological symptom severity in a sample of teachers. 215 teachers completed questionnaires measuring self-rated experiences of stress, psychological symptoms, mentalizing capacities and well-being in a cross-sectional design. Structural equation modeling was used to test mediation effects. Our findings show that mentalizing was positively associated with well-being. In addition, mentalizing counteracted the negative influence of stress and psychological symptom severity. However, a structural equation model assessing the mediating effect of global distress on well-being via mentalizing was not significant. Therefore, the data indicate that teachers’ capacity to mentalize, regardless of psychological symptom load and subjective experience of stress, has a positive impact on their well-being. The study highlights the protective function of mentalizing and forms a framework for psychological interventions to increase teachers’ well-being.

‘Rich’ and ‘poor’ in mentalizing: Do expert mentalizers exist?

“…Further study is needed to replicate these findings groups who would be expected to have mentalizing expertise such as other “caring professions” (paramedics, surgeons, primary school teachers e.g. [ 83 ]).…”

A mentalising education programme for community pharmacy workforce

“…Traditionally, psychoeducational approaches have been targeted at either psychiatric patients and/or families with the aim of providing them with information about psychiatric conditions and, on this basis enabling patients to actively engage in the treatment process and families to deliver optimal care that supports patients' treatment (Haslam-Hopwood et al, 2006). However, more recently, psychoeducational interventions targeted at professionals in their day-today practice have been developed with the aim of increasing the professionals mentalising capacity (Bak, 2012;Ensink et al, 2013;Bak et al, 2015;Valle et al, 2016;Schwarzer et al, 2021), and hereby the ability to better understand the intentional mental states of both themselves and the citizens that they serve. A central part of these psychoeducational interventions is that they not only focus on teaching the content of mentalizing but also include activities that train the participants' mentalising skills (Haslam-Hopwood et al, 2006).…”

“…Besides furthering pharmacy staff's ability to engage with patients' perspectives, including recognising own perspectives, the capacity of mentalising is in itself a health-promoting capacity. The ability to understand the meaning of other people's behaviour and the way this behaviour affects oneself promotes an experience of well-being and protects professionals from the impact of distressing events and adversity (Schwarzer et al, 2021). The buffering effect of mentalising appears relevant in a pharmacy practice context; recent studies show that more than 60% of pharmacists report experiencing high levels of burnout.…”

Mentalisierungsfähigkeit und Empathie in der Psychiatrie – eine Sozialisationsfrage?

“…Eine gute Mentalisierungsfähigkeit wirkt protektiv in stressigen Situationen und geht mit erhöhtem Wohlbefinden einher (vgl. [ 20 ]). Welche Mediatoren und Moderatorvariablen beeinflussen die Mentalisierungsfähigkeit?…”