Psychological Well-Being in Teachers During and Post-Covid-19: Positive Psychology Interventions

'We're Not in a Place Where We Can Thrive Yet': A Qualitative Exploration of Systems of Health Promotion in Primary Schools in the Aftermath of the COVID-19 Pandemic

BACKGROUND

Health promotion in schools can be defined as any activity undertaken to improve the health of all school users. This qualitative study aimed to explore the systems of health promotion in primary schools in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, from the perspectives of teachers and principals in the Republic of Ireland.

METHODS

Participants were recruited using snowball and convenience sampling techniques via a larger quantitative study. Participants joined 45-min online focus groups informed by a semi-structured interview guide. A reflexive thematic approach was taken to analysis.

RESULTS

Thirty teachers participated, and most (n = 26) identified as female. Teaching experience across the sample ranged from 2 to 38 years. School sizes ranged from 20 to 850 students. All types of eligible publicly funded schools were represented. Three themes were generated: rebuilding the foundation, choosing within our limits and drawing the line.

CONCLUSION

Findings indicate that systems of health promotion in primary schools were severely challenged during the COVID-19 pandemic and that recovery will be lengthy. School communities are well-positioned to have a leading role in primary and secondary disease prevention, but investment is needed to establish resilient frameworks for health promotion as child health issues provoked by the pandemic are addressed over the coming years.

Educator perspectives on stressors and health: a qualitative study of U.S. K-12 educators in February 2022

BACKGROUND

Teachers experienced increased stressors and stress during the initial onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. While many educators returned to in-person instruction in the 2021-2022 school year, they faced changing job demands and stressors which has important implications for educator well-being. We sought to understand the stressors and health impacts faced by U.S. educators in the 2021-2022 school year, two years following the acute phase of the pandemic.

METHODS

Thirty-four certified educators based in Connecticut, USA participated in four virtual focus groups in February 2022. A semi-structured focus group script, designed by the research team and guided by the job demands-resources model, was administered to understand stressors and stress impacts. Data were transcribed and analyzed using the constant comparative method to identify themes and sub-themes. Themes were summarized based on how many participants mentioned them.

RESULTS

Analysis of the qualitative data yielded three themes concerning the well-being impacts of stress: physical health and health behaviors, psychological health, and relationships and social well-being behaviors. The majority of educators indicated impacts in these domains with 76% indicating impacts on physical health and health behaviors (e.g. poor sleep, physical exhaustion, lack of exercise, unhealthy eating), 62% indicating impacts on psychological health (e.g. emotional exhaustion, anxiety, negative self-evaluation); and 68% indicating impacts on relationships social well-being behaviors (e.g. connections with family or friends, connections with others, relationships with coworkers). The majority (94%) of educators indicated that stressors from the school or district with the majority (91%) citing stressors related to protocols/expectations (e.g. excessive or increased demands, insufficient or decreased resources) and some (38%) administrators. Over half (62%) indicated personal stressors including personal/home life (41%), high personal expectations (18%), and income (18%). Some (35%) indicated either the pandemic (26%) or safety concerns (9%) were stressors. Some (24%) cited students' parents as a stressor and a few indicated community (12%), students (12%), and state or national level (9%) stressors.

CONCLUSION

Educator well-being continued to be impacted in the post-pandemic era. Targeted interventions are needed to reduce school and district-related demands and to address stress-related educator well-being.

Primary school teachers are immune: a journey in the sea of psychological well-being, buoyancy, and engagement

The concept of language teacher immunity is a relatively new notion that has been introduced in the field of language teacher psychology. It is imperative that teachers have their inherent immunity strengthened since they have never been intrinsically protected against fluctuations that are unanticipated and beyond their control. In order to achieve this goal, the present research used a quantitative approach in order to investigate the possible effects of teacher immunity on their psychological well-being, buoyancy, and engagement. This study was conducted by sending out three questionnaires to a total of 384 primary language teachers. On the basis of the findings, it was concluded that teacher immunity has the potential to serve as a significant predictor of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers' psychological well-being, buoyancy, and engagement. The research's conclusions may have substantial implications for education in terms of advancing psychological well-being, buoyancy, and engagement.

Latent profile analysis of psychological needs thwarting in Chinese school teachers: longitudinal associations with problematic smartphone use, psychological distress, and perceived administrative support

Introduction

In light of the significant impact that teachers have on education quality and student growth, their mental health warrants special attention. With the increasing popularity of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and the rise of online teaching during the pandemic, teachers have become a group prone to developing problematic smartphone use (PSU). Psychological need thwarting (PNT) has been shown to be closely related to PSU, psychological distress, and perceived administrative support. However, most previous studies have adopted a variable-centered approach, which may overlook the possibility that the three basic needs are not closely associated and could form distinct profiles. Therefore, this study aims to apply latent profile analysis to identify different PNT profiles and their associations with PSU, psychological distress, and perceived administrative support.

Methods

A longitudinal survey was conducted using convenience and purposive sampling methods. The survey involved 1,642 primary and middle school teachers working in China over a two-month interval, with the first assessment in November 2021 (Time 1) and the second in January 2022 (Time 2).

Results

The results indicate that a three-profile model, intricately based on the PNT data gathered at Time 1, is most optimal: Class 1 is labeled as 'High autonomy-High competence and Moderate relatedness thwarting', Class 2 as 'High autonomy-High competence and High relatedness thwarting', and Class 3 as 'Low psychological needs thwarting'. Distinct associations were observed among the three profiles concerning PSU, psychological distress, and perceived administrative support. Specifically, in terms of PSU, the score of Class 2 was higher than Class 1, with that of Class 3 being the lowest at Time 1, while at Time 2 no significant difference was found between any two of these three groups; in terms of distress, the scores of the three profiles were arranged from high to low as Class 2, 1, and 3 at both time points; and in terms of perceived administrative support, the order was just the opposite, with 3, 1, and 2 from high to low at both Time 1 and Time 2.

Conclusion

Notably, the consistent ranking of the three classes in terms of psychological distress and administrative support suggests a lasting influence of PNT. Future studies should explore this enduring impact further by employing additional longitudinal data sets and examining potential mediators or moderators beyond the current study's scope.

Investigation into psychological contract in ethically disciplined group: a case study of academics in Chinese higher education

Ethical values and beliefs are increasingly realized as important factors in the operation of psychological contract for their potential role in determining individuals' attitudes toward employment relationships by valuing mutual exchange. However, to incorporate ethical terms into psychological contract analysis is challenging because they are often confused with relational contract, and ethics of professions can be difficult to summarize and interpret. This study has demonstrated how psychological contract operates within academics in Chinese higher education, an occupational group that is typically considered ethically disciplined and culturally bonded to their identity. Here, we designed a questionnaire survey focusing on transactional/relational psychological contract, ethical framework, and job performance, and statistically analyzed the responses to this survey from 230 Chinese higher education academics. It finds that the sample population perceived psychology contact with a relatively low contribution from monetary terms, while a strong correlation was observed between ethics and relational terms. In addition, the influence of emotional and ethical terms on job performance was clearly differentiated in statistics. From analyzing through a mediation model, it suggested an intermediated role of ethics between psychological contract and job performance. Findings in this study have demonstrated that ethically disciplined groups exhibit unique features in both their perceptions of psychological contract and their correlation with ethics and job performance, which is anomalous in other occupations. This study provides a protocol demonstrating the role of ethical framework in the operation of psychological contract, particularly within occupational groups bonded strongly to their identity/profession and constrained by ethics imposed by the society.

Changes in psychological distress among Polish medical university teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic

Our study aims to update knowledge about psychological distress and its changes in the Polish group of academic medical teachers after two years of a global pandemic. During the coronavirus disease, teachers were challenged to rapidly transition into remote teaching and adapt new assessment and evaluation systems for students, which might have been a completely novel situation that was not addressed before, especially in medical universities in Poland. We conducted a cross-sectional study at Poznan University of Medical Sciences from March to April 2022. The questionnaire included self-reported information on anxiety, stress, and depression. We found that post-pandemic levels of anxiety, stress, and depression have significantly (p<0.001) improved compared to initial levels at the beginning of coronavirus disease. In multivariate models, females had higher odds of improving levels of anxiety (OR  =  0.46; 95% CI  =  -1.58-(-0.03); p  =  0.04), stress (OR  =  0.36; 95% CI  =  -1.83-(-0.22); p  =  0.01), and depression (OR  =  0.0.37; 95% CI  =  -1.58-(-0.12); p  =  0.03). Anxiety, stress, or depression were not significantly associated with years of experience, the number of taught subjects, and weekly teaching hours, but only with the academic work during COVID-19 (Spearman ranxiety = 0.37, rstress = 0.32, rdepression = 0.37, p<0.001). For the virtual learning concerns, 79% of teachers reported that students might engage less; and it was correlated with higher weekly teaching hours (r = 0.19, p<0.05). Even though only 29.8% reported cheating as a concern, it was correlated with a higher number of taught subjects (r = 0.2, p<0.05). Levels of anxiety, stress, and depression have improved as time passed, not affecting teachers' academic performance. Concerns about virtual learning have been raised, suggesting it may be conjoined with classroom learning but not as an alternative. Universities should highlight the importance of seeking psychological support and provide essential programs to employees. Teachers' coping skills with psychological distress should be further studied.

Unpacking language teacher beliefs, agency, and resilience in the complex, unprecedented time: A mixed-method study

We conducted this mixed-method study by focusing on the influx relationship among teacher beliefs, agency, and resilience during the pandemic and exploring the relationships and tensions among these constructs or capacities. Specifically, we surveyed 93 language teachers across seven different regions in China and collected their perceptions and beliefs about challenges and solutions during the first wave of the pandemic. In a further step, we interviewed six participants, analyzed the transcripts of the interviews, and then explored how their agency and resilience emerged and developed during the pandemic. From the quantitative statistics, we reported teacher beliefs about emotional, physical, mentoring, and support challenges in emergency remote teaching and their adopted strategies to handle these challenges during the pandemic. We also reported significant correlations among different perceived challenges and solutions. From the qualitative analysis, we found that language teacher beliefs, agency, and resilience co-evolved from intrapersonal and interpersonal reflections through temporal and contextual affordances. Drawing from the sociocultural theory, we contributed a theoretical framework for studying language teacher beliefs, agency, and resilience. We discussed our findings around the global traits that language teachers are required to develop in the increasingly complex world and also offered implications for language teacher education programs.