Mental Health Experiences of Teachers: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Teacher mental health continues to be of concern in elementary and secondary schools; however, supporting teacher wellbeing is understudied (Parker et al., 2012; Roffey, 2012), particularly from a gender perspective (Bourgeault et al., 2021). Among professionals, teachers exhibit one of the highest levels of job stress and burnout on the job. (Hakanen et al., 2006; Stoeber & Rennert, 2008). This scoping review investigates and consolidates the existing research on teacher mental health, leaves of absences, and return-to-work. Work context and personal factors/family context contribute to teacher stress and attrition and by extension may impact temporary leaves of absence (Pressley, 2021). Several articles report on interventions with moderate success to reduce teacher stress, but no studies evaluated return-to-work interventions (Ebert, 2014; Kwak et al., 2019). The amount of stress teachers are experiencing and the pressure that is causing them to burn out is the most common narrative present in the literature. The review highlights gaps in the literature surrounding teacher mental health, leaves of absence, and return-to-work and a notable gap regarding the role of gender.

Physical Activity among Elderly Teachers Working in Basic Education Schools

“…In our study, 37.7% of elderly teachers reported receiving an anxiety diagnosis. Many aspects of the educational environment can be challenging and stressful, with teachers often facing pressure to meet teaching goals, deal with student and administrative demands, and deal with other professional difficulties [46]. These factors may contribute to anxiety among elderly teachers.…”

Addressing schoolteacher food and nutrition-related health and wellbeing: a scoping review of the food and nutrition constructs used across current research

“…Diet quality indexes have recently been used as a diet-related health indicator in mental health and wellbeing interventions [ 14 ]. However, despite the recognition that teacher populations globally experience high levels of stress and burnout [ 29 , 31 ], especially with additional pressures observed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic [ 151 ], only 11 of the current included review papers utilised a measure of mental health and/or wellbeing such as quality of life [ 135 , 136 ] or perceived stress [ 152 ]. It is important that future research in teacher FN-related health and wellbeing includes investigation or consideration of the impact of key mental health-related factors such as stress, anxiety and/or burnout on teacher diet quality and other FN-related factors.…”

Work & life stress experienced by professional workers during the pandemic: a gender-based analysis

“…Gender has been noted as one of the main predictors of early burnout that mainly affects women healthcare workers who are more likely to develop work-related stress [65,66]. For non-health professionals, although women are still more predominant in the teaching profession, for example than men [67], the double burden of care work that exists for teachers who are also mothers has only increased throughout the pandemic [27]. Research among accounting professionals show that women were more likely to experience mental distress while working from home than men [57].…”

“…Some of the mental health challenges facing health professionals are connected to the inflexible and irregular work schedules which often include shift work and required overtime [ 25 , 26 ]. For non-health professionals like teachers, mental health challenges are associated with work overload, multiple demands, emotional labour and a lack of psychological safety [ 27 ].…”