The Reported Self-Care Practices of Music Educators

Abstract

The purpose of this quantitative descriptive study was to examine personal and professional self-care practices reported by K–12 music teachers while also exploring the relationships between self-care and age, gender, years of experience, and several other contextual variables. The research team designed an instrument, based on a previous measure created by psychologists, to examine self-care behaviors. A sample of 337 music educators completed the instrument. We found very few meaningful relationships between self-care and demographic or contextual variables, although some patterns in common self-care practices were identified. Across both personal and professional domains, teachers reported a high level of activity in maintaining interpersonal relationships. Within the professional domain, participants reported activities most often that pertained to professional development. The least reported behaviors within the personal domain pertained to promotive habits for physical well-being such as taking time off when ill, regularly exercising, or healthful eating.

Female music educators’ stress and well-being in the height of a global pandemic in the United States

“…Similar to previous research, our participants were challenged over the year with finding a consistent sleep schedule (Casacchia et al, 2021; Minihan et al, 2022) and dealing with anxiety (Cheng & Lam, 2021; Fan et al, 2021; Pressley et al, 2021; Santamaría et al, 2021). Furthermore, our participants struggled with taking time away from work, finding time for physical exercise and activities, and taking care of their own personal well-being, which is consistent with other educators during the COVID-19 pandemic (Kelley et al, 2022; Miksza et al, 2021; Minihan et al, 2022).…”

Relationships Between Well-Being and Teaching Adaptability Among Music Teacher Educators: A Snapshot of the 2020–2021 Academic Year

“…Specific to music education, there appears to be little extant research regarding psychological well-being among K-12 and university music teachers (e.g., Kang & Yoo, 2019; Kelley et al, 2022; Miksza et al, 2021; Parkes et al, 2021). As far as we can determine, there is no research that specifically explores the well-being of music teacher educators.…”

“…As positive psychology has gained traction in educational settings, there has been increasing research interest in the wellness of teachers (Avsec et al, 2009; Ilgan et al, 2015; Kang & Yoo, 2019; Kelley et al, 2022; Kurt & Demirbolat, 2019; Liang et al, 2017; Miksza et al, 2021; Özü et al, 2017; Parkes et al, 2021; Sisask et al, 2014). Flourishing is a metric of well-being, which can be described as “the experience of life going well.…”