Staff Well-being and Common Mental Health Symptoms among University Educator during the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Philippines

Abstract

Educators and staff adapted to work-from-home setup amidst the covid-19 pandemic. The transition to full-online classes and services leads to poor mental health. The current study explored the association of educator and staff personal characteristics, well-being, and mental health. 326 university employees completed the demographic profile, mental health, and well-being scales. Various hierarchical regression was conducted to determine if personal characteristics and well-being predict common mental health symptoms (depression, anxiety, and stress). Series of multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA) was conducted to determine the difference between the levels of mental health symptoms according to mental health category, and personal characteristics. The results support the hypothesis with psychological and emotional well-being inversely predicting depression, anxiety, and stress. However, social well-being failed to serve as a significant determinant of common mental health symptoms. MANOVA obtained a significant difference with common mental health symptoms and mental health category and personal characteristics.

Role of Work Engagement, Autonomy Support, Psychological Capital, and Economic Factors to Educator and Staff Well-being in the Philippines

“…Research is limited to one type of well-being (i.e., Deci et al, 2014;Ebersold, 2018;. Few scholars gave attention to all types of the wellbeing of educators (Bermejo et al, 2013, Embalsado et al, 2022 while most dedicated their time to investigating teachers' burnout.…”

“…We have four main arguments in our study, first, as employees are concerned with job demands their well-being is influenced by their work engagement. Specifically, the concerns to function optimally (psychological well-being) (Gagné & Deci, 2005), the meaning and social worth of their job (social well-being) (Al-Sabbah, 2021;Embalsado et al, 2022), and the satisfaction and pleasure their experience from their job (emotional well-being) is affected by their work engagement (Oerlemans, 2011). Second, literature on autonomy support indicates that supervisors and peers that motivate their subordinates and colleagues could improve their well-being (Ebersold, 2018;Shultz et al, 2014;Williams et al, 2014).…”

“…Encouraging employees to fulfill their duties in their means, and promoting enthusiasm, and persistence improve the well-being of employees (Deci et al, 2001). The unfamiliar working conditions brought by the online teaching set up forced isolation of employees and challenges fulfill their responsibilities which caused mental health issues (Embalsado et al, 2022;Nasr, 2020). Extant literature shows that support from supervisors could alleviate the distress and improve the well-being of employees as they confront personal and occupational challenges (Embalsado et al, 2022;Ebersold et al, 2019).…”

“…The unfamiliar working conditions brought by the online teaching set up forced isolation of employees and challenges fulfill their responsibilities which caused mental health issues (Embalsado et al, 2022;Nasr, 2020). Extant literature shows that support from supervisors could alleviate the distress and improve the well-being of employees as they confront personal and occupational challenges (Embalsado et al, 2022;Ebersold et al, 2019). Supervisors that understand the experiences of their subordinates serve as a scaffold that guides educators and staff to adapt and experience better well-being.…”

“…Contrasting with the positive influence of parent and spiritual hope, peer external hope fails to predict well-being. Since work is mostly done online, employees spend most of their time at home, giving less time to interact with peers (Embalsado et al, 2022). Spending more time with their families makes them more influential in their well-being.…”