Job Stress and Health of Elementary and Secondary School Educators in the United States

Abstract

Elementary and secondary school educators face many work stressors, which appear to be increasing due to economic, political, and social trends. Therefore, we analyzed data from a 2017 national American Federation of Teachers survey of U.S. education staff, including data from two New York School districts that have adopted collaborative labor-management practices. The national American Federation of Teachers sample of educators reported significantly higher prevalences of several work stressors and poorer physical and mental health compared to the U.S. workers overall, adjusted for age, gender, and race/ethnicity. Compared with educators nationally, educators in districts with collaborative labor-management practices did not have a consistently higher or lower prevalence of work stressors or poorer health. Findings suggest the importance of reducing work stressors among U.S. educators. Results should be interpreted with caution due to the low educator survey response rate.

Effects of Autonomy Support and Emotion Regulation on Teacher Burnout in the Era of the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Compared with other professionals, teachers in P-12 schools experience higher levels of stress ( Ferguson et al, 2012 ; Landsbergis et al, 2020 ), and the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated levels of stress and anxiety for teachers around the globe ( Kim et al, 2021 ; Pressley, 2021 ). The workload and emotional labor required of teachers were also significant prior to the pandemic ( Chang, 2009 ), but have only increased as teachers have encountered unprecedented challenges including abrupt transitions between virtual, hybrid, and in-person instruction in socially distanced classrooms.…”