COVID-19 pandemic-related anxiety, stress, and depression among teachers: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

BACKGROUND: As millions of teachers have been forced to rely upon remote teaching due to the closure of schools during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is particularly important to understand the extent to which teacher’s psychological wellbeing has been affected by this global health crisis. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis was twofold: 1) ascertain the prevalence of stress, anxiety, depression among teachers during the COVID-19 outbreak; 2) identify the associated factors of these psychological wellbeing domains of the teachers. METHODS: Academic Search Premier, Eric, PsycInfo, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched for articles published from December 2019 and July 2021, using search terms including “COVID-19” “anxiety” “depression” “stress”, and “teachers”. RESULTS: This study included 54 studies synthesising data from 256,896 teachers across 22 countries. The meta-analysis showed higher prevalence of stress (62.6%, 95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 46.1–76.6), compared to anxiety (36.3%, 95% CI: 28.5–44.9) and depression (59.9%, 95% CI: 43.4–74.4) among teachers. Teachers’ experiences of these psychological issues were associated with various socio-demographic and institutional factors, including gender, nature of online teaching, job satisfaction, teaching experience, and the volume of workload. Additionally, several protective factors, such as regular exercises and provision of technical support for online teaching, reduced teachers’ negative psychological experiences. CONCLUSION: There is a need for authorities to formulate educational policies to improve teachers’ wellbeing at the time of global crisis. Special attention should be paid to assist female teachers in overcoming physical and mental stressors.

Stress, Burnout, Anxiety and Depression among Teachers: A Scoping Review

“…Socio-demographic, school and work-related factors are all associated with both anxiety and depression [ 42 , 50 , 51 , 80 ]. This association is consistent with what was reported in a systematic review and meta-analysis by Ma et al, which suggested that teachers’ experiences of psychological issues were associated with various socio-demographic factors such as gender, institutional factors, teaching experience, and workload volume [ 100 ]. In this scoping review, conflicting results were found in relation to the association between teacher gender and depression.…”

“…The prevalences of stress, burnout, anxiety and depression reported in this scoping review are similar to those reported in two systematic reviews and meta-analysis conducted among teachers during the pandemic. For example, the prevalence of stress reported by Ma et al, from a meta-analysis of 54 studies was 62.6%, whereas the prevalence of anxiety was 36.3% and depression was 59.9% among teachers during the pandemic [ 100 ]. In another meta-analysis, the prevalence range of anxiety was 10% to 49.4%; depression was 15.9% to 28.9%; and stress was 12.6% to 50.6% [ 101 ], which all fall within the range reported in this scoping review for stress [ 28 , 40 ], anxiety [ 42 , 56 ], and depression [ 48 , 59 ].…”

Shifts in Stressors, Internalizing Symptoms, and Coping Mechanisms of Teachers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…For instance, high expectations and work demands were the most common stressors before and during the pandemic. Similarly, Ma et al ( 2022 ) found that workload and sense of organizational unfairness were consistently high stressors across world contexts. In Iran, these teacher stressors have been common for at least the past decade (Ghasemi, 2022b ).…”

“…Most of the literature on teacher stress and coping to date has focused on Western educational contexts. Yet available data suggest that teachers in other world contexts also experience high levels of stress and burnout and many of the same common stressors (Ma et al, 2022 ). For instance, Ma et al ( 2022 ) recently completed a meta-analysis of 64 studies in 22 countries that were conducted during the pandemic and found high levels of stress across nations.…”

“…Yet available data suggest that teachers in other world contexts also experience high levels of stress and burnout and many of the same common stressors (Ma et al, 2022 ). For instance, Ma et al ( 2022 ) recently completed a meta-analysis of 64 studies in 22 countries that were conducted during the pandemic and found high levels of stress across nations. They found that workload, interpersonal conflicts, job insecurity, lack of organizational fairness, perceived risk of getting COVID-19, and challenges with distance learning were significant predictors of teacher stress across contexts.…”