Is teachers’ depression contagious to students? A study based on classes’ hierarchical models

Abstract

BackgroundAccording to the theory of emotional contagion, emotions in one person can trigger similar emotions in groups within social networks. In schools, the class just like a small social network, that teachers’ emotion, such as depression, might be contagious to their students. However, until now there is few studies reporting this issue. This study aims to determine whether teachers’ depression be contagious to students and what mechanics behind the phenomenon.MethodsUsing Children’s depression and cognitive scales to assess 2579 students, meanwhile using teachers’ depression and emotional labor scales assess 529 teachers. The nested data from 112 classes were analyzed.ResultsTeachers’ depression was positively correlated with emotional labor surface and deep acting, and teachers’ depression cross-level predicted students’ depression inversely. For teachers with higher levels of depression, the teacher’s deep acting affected their students’ depression significantly, the more effortful the teachers’ deep acting, the lower the degree of the students’ depression, however, for teachers with lower levels of depression, the deep acting was not significant.ConclusionThe results maybe state that depression in teachers is not readily transmitted to students, one of reasons is that teachers’ emotional labor may alleviate the influence of their depression on students. However, considered that teachers' emotional labor was positively correlated with their depression, the teachers’ emotional labor may be like a double-edged sword, while alleviating the influence of teachers' depression on students, it also deteriorated their own depression, making it impossible sustainable. For students’ depression interventions based in school, including teachers maybe a better selection.Trial registrationThis article is not a interventional research, so it was not registered.