Teacher Stress and Burnout

Teaching Profession Stressors

• The teaching profession can be highly stressful
• This stress may lead to reduced job satisfaction
• Burnout can result in poor work performance
• Stress is a normal response to upsetting or threatening events
• However, when stress becomes chronic, this leads to issues
• Chronic stress can impede day-to-day functioning and emotional balance
• Chronic stress is a risk factor for developing other psychiatric illnesses like anxiety and depression
• Prolonged teacher stress negatively correlates with job satisfaction
• Prolonged teacher stress correlates positively with intending to leave the teaching profession
• Stress may lead to withdrawal behavior that includes physically or psychologically leaving the work setting
• Leads to inappropriate anger and increased alcohol and drug consumption
• Can cause excessive anxiety, mental fatigue and burnout
• Predicts increased depression
• Teacher stress associates with demoralization
• Also a disrupted sense of self-consistency
• Canadian teachers also experience high-stress levels

Studies on Stress Levels

• A study showed Quebec teachers reporting high psychological distress was double at (40%) than the general population sample (20%)
• Study results stated that nearly 70% of respondents worried about their mental health and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic
• A cross-sectional study showed that two-thirds of teachers perceived stress at work at least 50% of the time
• Teacher workload is one of the most common sources of stress
• There is a lack of systematic understanding about how stress is measured, its prevalence globally, what factors lead to stress and what causes the associated negative outcomes among teachers

Defining Burnout

• Burnout is considered a stress-related problem for individuals who work in interpersonally oriented occupations such as healthcare and education
• Burnout among teachers can result from excessive demands on their energy, strength and resources
• Negative stress response represents a risk factor not only for depression but also for cardiovascular and other somatic diseases
• Researchers conceptualize burnout as having three interrelated components: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment
• Emotional exhaustion represents emotional depletion and a loss of energy
• Job satisfaction is negatively associated with emotional exhaustion
• Job satisfaction is positively associated with self-perceived accomplishment, but not significantly related to cynicism
• Reduced accomplishment describes the self-evaluation dimension of burnout, including feelings of incompetence and a lack of achievement and productivity at work
• Mild burnout involves short-lived irritability, fatigue, worry, or frustration
• Moderate burnout has the same symptoms but lasts for at least two weeks
• Severe burnout may also entail physical ailments such as ulcers, chronic back pain, and migraine headaches
• Workplace improvements to reduce burnout could prevent adverse sequelae, improve health outcomes, and reduce healthcare expenditures
• More systematic research is needed to further understand the factors in the workplace to address burnout and improve teacher health outcomes

Stress and Anxiety

• Anxiety and perceived stress are predicted by workload, student behavior, and employment conditions
• A considerable lack of administrative support is the single biggest factor increasing anxiety
• Those with low job satisfaction are more susceptible to experiencing burnout, high anxiety levels and depression
• Teacher stress contributes to teacher anxiety and may trigger anger, further intensifying anxiety
• High anxiety level reporters also showed high burnout levels
• Research needed to understand what factors play key roles in triggering anxiety symptoms among educators and how stress, burnout, anxiety, and depression relate to each other

Details on Depression

• Depression can lead to numerous deficiencies
• Depression is considered the worldwide primary cause of work disability
• Depression among teachers can also significantly impact their health, productivity, and function
• Its particularly pervasive effects are shown on personal and professional life
• Individuals with depression often experience difficulties meeting interpersonal, time-management, and productivity demands
• This also may lead to psychological problems, decreased work quality, absences due to illness, and increased work disability
• These can all profoundly impact worker productivity
• Teachers’ most robust major depressive disorder (MDD) predictors included a low job satisfaction, high perceived stress, somatization disorder, and anxiety disorder
• More research is needed to understand what factors play key roles in triggering depression symptoms among educators and how depression relates to other psychological conditions including stress, burnout, and anxiety

Studies in Canada on Teachers in Alberta and Nova Scotia

• Aims to assess the prevalence and correlates of stress, burnout, anxiety, and depression among elementary, junior high and high school teachers
• It will also evaluate the effectiveness of a daily supportive text message intervention, the Wellness4Teachers program,
• This is all to address stress, burnout, anxiety, and depression among elementary and high school teachers
• In this context a scoping review aims to identify and summarize the literature on the prevalence and correlates of teachers’ stress, burnout, anxiety, and depression
• Aims to determine the problem’s extent in different jurisdictional contexts and also identify the gaps in knowledge for future research
• Identifying the correlates of these emotional and mental conditions may also facilitate the research and development of early interventions which can be implemented to address this phenomenon

Study Details and Analysis

• A scoping review was planned and conducted in adherence to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) statement
• A comprehensive search strategy was adopted for replicability, reliability, and transparency
• The scoping review also followed Arksey and O’Malley’s five-stage approach to scoping reviews: identifying the research question, searching for relevant studies, the study selection, charting the data, and collating, summarizing and reporting the results
• The research question posed was: “What are the prevalence and correlates of primary and secondary teachers’ stress, burnout anxiety and depression in different jurisdictions?”
• A search was performed with relevant terms to identify and select articles in databases: MEDLINE, EMBASE, APA PsycINFO, CINAHL Plus, Scopus Elsevier and ERIC
• Articles were considered eligible for study if they addressed either the prevalence or correlates of burnout, stress, depression, or anxiety among teachers or educators
• The articles were limited to original, peer-reviewed quantitative articles written in English.
• Articles were excluded if study participants were tertiary or university teachers/students
• Additionally excluded were studies on interventions’ outcomes, case reports, meta-analyses, systematic reviews, opinion pieces, commentaries, editorials, or grey literature such as non-peer-reviewed graduate student theses, non-research articles or conference reports
• The search was not limited by publication year
• Two researchers independently reviewed the citations during the title, abstract screening, and full-text review phase
• All discrepancies were resolved through discussion and consensus
• 190 articles identified for review and 120 excluded
• The research team extracted data for each selected article according to the following: author(s) name, year of publication, country of study, study design, assessment tools used, sample size (N), age, main findings, and conclusion

Summarizing Results of the Search

• An overview presents of existing evidence relating to the prevalence and the correlates of stress, burnout, anxiety, and depression among teachers
• Relevant data were organized into tables and validated by at least two team members
• Characteristics and results reported in each included article were summarized
• Determined the range for the psychological conditions in high-quality studies

Study Characteristics not included

• 10,493 citations identified
• 5711 duplicates removed
• 4782 studies screened
• 4592 studies irrelevant
• 190 full-text studies were assessed for eligibility
• 120 studies excluded for the following reasons
  • 31 Not a peer reviewed journal article
  • 25 Not in English
  • 19 Doesn't address prevalence or correlates
  • 13 Full texts couldn't be retrieved
  • 11 Wrong Population- Sample Mixed
  • 12 Wrong study design
  • 4 Wrong Population
  • 3 Interventional study
  • 2 Review article.
• 70 studies included

Study Results

• A search identified 10,493 citations
• Covidence software automatically removed 5711 duplicates
• One hundred and ninety articles remained for full-text screening, and seventy of these were eligible for inclusion
• Studies were quantitative cross-sectional (67 reports), mixed quantitative (1 report),and randomized controlled trials (2 reports)
• The seventy articles included a total of 143,288 participants with individual sample ranging from 50 to 51,782 participants, with an age range from 18 years to 75 years
• Minimum response rate was 13% and the maximum was 97.4% with the median response rate of 77%
• Included articles had studies from 1974 to 2022 with most studies (79%) published between 2007 and 2022
• Most of the studies were conducted in Europe (40%), followed by Asia (30%) and North America (19%) while African, South America and Oceanian studies represented 6%, 1% and 4%, respectively

Reported Outcomes

• Most of the studies reported on multiple outcomes, indicating the interrelatedness of stress, burnout, anxiety, and depression
• Some articles reported on a single outcome, such as stress (N = 9), burnout (N = 8), or depression (N = 6)
• Others paired outcomes of burnout and depression, stress and depression (N = 5), burnout and anxiety (N = 2), anxiety and depression (N = 4), and stress and anxiety (N = 4)
• One study (N = 1) specifically examined the paired outcomes of burnout and stress
• Outcome of the interaction explored
• Anxiety, depression, and stress (N = 10) and anxiety, burnout and depression (N = 1).
• Outcomes between stress, burnout and anxiety (N = 1); stress, burnout, and depression (N = 2)
• Two articles reported interaction between stress, burnout, anxiety, and depression

Psychological Studies

• Depression reported most, anxiety reported least
• Burnout Inventory explored the components of burnout: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment (27/32: 84%)
• Used the Inventory, the Shirom–Melamed Burnout Inventory, or the Teacher Burnout Scale for burnout (five/thirty two studies)
• Utilized scales for depression/anxiety symtpoms were the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale
• Less popular scales included the Goldberg Anxiety and Depression Questionnaire, COVID-19 Anxiety Scale, Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), and the Manifest Anxiety Scale
• Studies measuring stress utilized the (DASS), the Teacher Stress Inventory and the Perceived Stress Scale

Heterogenous Stress Indicators

• Reported prevalence rates that were heterogenous ranged from 6.0% to 100% with a median of about 32.5%
• Stress prevalence ( 2020 to 2022 ) 6.0%, 66.0% and 10.7%
• Stress prevalence ( up until 2019 ) 7.0% , 100% and 33.9%
• High degree of stress in early studies of teacher stress with 76% and 87.1% describing stress levels at school as moderate or significant
• Teacher stress issues are long standing
• One study completed conducted in covid pandemic (reported :6.0%) and another (reported: 7.0%, 32.3% and 25.3%)

Prevalence and Burnout

• Ranges from 25.12% to 48.37% with identified groups for teachers
• levels of emotional exhaustion and high levels of personal accomplishment
• teachers with high levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization
• teachers with low levels of depersonalization and personal accomplishment
• Variable prevalence of burnout and psychological distress have been reported among teachers , with the burnout prevalence at all levels ranging from a low of 2.81% to a high of 70.9% , with a median of 28.8% (Table A1)
• Prevalences 2020 to 2022 3.1% , 70.9% and 27.6%. Similarly, the lowest, highest and median burnout prevalences up until 2019 (prior to the pandemic and lockdown) were, respectively, 2.81%, 63.43% and 25.09%.
• Only 11% of the teachers were classified as burnt out ( in early study)
• Burnout prevalence can have subdimensions for example, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment ranging from 11% to 40%
• 18.3% to 34.9% of teachers may have threatened burnout
• Burnout scores and subdimensions of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization significantly higher among female teachers than males
• males (59.38%) showed low burnout than did females (53%) (Likely a higher percentage) -Various levels of burnout
• low/no burnout (58.12%) to moderate (2.81% to 70.9%) and severe levels of burnout (3.1% to 33.3%)
• Science teachers reported slightly more burnout than arts teachers
• Arts teachers reported a burnout prevalence of 12.5% to 25%

Prevalence of Anxiety

• The anxiety prevalence in symptoms ranged from 4.9% to 68.0%, median of 26%
• Prevalences (from 2020 to 2022) ranged from lowest in respectively (10.5%), 66.0% and 38.9)
• Anxieity Prevalences (up until 2019) 7.0% , 68.0% and 26.0%
• Teachers experience 26% anxiety for borderline anxiety, 36% for minimal or no anxiety, and 38% for clinically significant anxiety
• Prevalence studies report 17.6% low, 23.2% mild and 7.0% to 23.3% severe
• Other study reported 43% prevalence
• Prevalence did not change significantly during COVID-19 pandemic

Prevalence of Depression

• Ranges from 0.6% to 85.7%,median of 30.7%
• Lowest ranges (2020 to 2022) were respectively, 0.6% , 85.7% and 23.5%
• Depression ranges (up until 2019) were respectively 0.7%, 85% and 24.1%.
• Study showed a varied number in studies:
  • 79% of teachers scoring (level low) and (other study17% with scores for boderline 4% with indicated clinical indication)
• Prevalencce during 2008 from 17.86% to 49.1% and the prevalence of severe ranged from to 0.7 to 9.9%
• Mild : ranged to 20 to 43.9% and (reported prevalence high)
• (Pandemic studies demonstrated higher rates : 58.9% for teacher (mild), 3.5% (moderate), and 0.6% ( severe) but reported that:’languishing’ = low levels of well being and 38.7: reported ‘flourising’)

Studies JBI Checklist

• Burnout: 25.12% to 74% in teachers
• Stress levels: (severe, high, extremely stressful) to 8.3% to 87.1%.
• Anxiety levels: 38% to 41.2%
• Depression: (terminologies such as major, moderate, moderate to severe 4% to 77 ( highest category 77%
• For the the studied media (stress/burnout/anxiety/and depression) were 67.0%, 60.9%, 39.6%, and 14

Correlates

• Variables significantly associated
• (Factors like ) gender
• marital status,age, teaching years
• exhaustion is correlated with (age 39,marital status)
• School factors like social support correlated to climate, which negatively correlated to depression,co worker and emotional exhaustion reduced anxiety/depression
• Dysfunctional attitudes, rumination. can increase problems.
• Increased: resilience can increase well being through threats, (positive emotions (in resilience for adapting), burn out and turnover can negatively predict job stability, Linked to resilience is burnout etc
• Factors were :gender/age/school/work related (factors that correlate with anxiety and depression.)
• Support from various resources: for fewer life stresses or major life events..