Background: Worldwide, stress and burnout continue to be a problem among teachers, leading to anxiety and depression. Burnout may adversely affect teachers’ health and is a risk factor for poor physical and mental well-being. Determining the prevalence and correlates of stress, burnout, anxiety, and depression among teachers is essential for addressing this public health concern. Objective: To determine the extent of the current literature on the prevalence and correlates of stress, burnout, anxiety, and depression among teachers. Method: This scoping review was performed using the PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews). Relevant search terms were used to determine the prevalence and correlates of teachers’ stress, burnout, anxiety, and depression. Articles were identified using MEDLINE (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online), EMBASE (Excerpta Medica Data Base), APA PsycINFO, CINAHL Plus (Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature), Scopus Elsevier and ERIC (Education Resources Information Center). The articles were extracted, reviewed, collated, and thematically analyzed, and the results were summarized and reported. Results: When only clinically meaningful (moderate to severe) psychological conditions among teachers were considered, the prevalence of burnout ranged from 25.12% to 74%, stress ranged from 8.3% to 87.1%, anxiety ranged from 38% to 41.2% and depression ranged from 4% to 77%. The correlates of stress, burnout, anxiety, and depression identified in this review include socio-demographic factors such as sex, age, marital status, and school (organizational) and work-related factors including the years of teaching, class size, job satisfaction, and the subject taught. Conclusion: Teaching is challenging and yet one of the most rewarding professions, but several factors correlate with stress, burnout, anxiety, and depression among teachers. Highlighting these factors is the first step in recognizing the magnitude of the issues encountered by those in the teaching profession. Implementation of a school-based awareness and intervention program is crucial to resolve the early signs of teacher stress and burnout to avoid future deterioration.

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Stress, Burnout, Anxiety and Depression among Teachers: A Scoping Review

As the frontline of our education system, teachers endure greater job-related stress than other professionals, even under the best of circumstances. While they were already exposed to certain stressors affecting their emotional health, the pandemic outbreak introduced new challenges putting teachers at risk of experiencing higher rates of emotional distress. This longitudinal study aimed to identify changes in teaching stressors and teachers’ coping strategies in the period before the pandemic to the immediate outbreaks of COVID-19 in Fall 2020. In addition, we examined the correlation of teachers’ coping approaches with stress, anxiety, and depression to understand if coping strategies correlate and predict such emotional distress. To this end, 376 English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers in Iran in the first wave and 351 in the second wave completed a battery of validated inventories capturing their emotional distress, teaching stressors, and coping approaches. The mean scores of the stressors and coping strategies across two waves indicated significant shifts toward using functional coping strategies upon experiencing new demands. Furthermore, we found that novice teachers experienced higher rates of stress and anxiety, which were positively associated with dysfunctional coping strategies. The results of the stepwise regression analysis with (dys)functional coping strategies indicated that coping mechanisms significantly account for 25% of variances in stress, anxiety, and depression. The implications of the study regarding promoting teacher mental health through identifying the risk factors associated with dysfunctional coping strategies have been discussed. 

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Shifts in Stressors, Internalizing Symptoms, and Coping Mechanisms of Teachers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background There remains uncertainty about the impact of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on mental health. This umbrella review provides a comprehensive overview of the association between the pandemic and common mental disorders. We qualitatively summarized evidence from reviews with meta-analyses of individual study-data in the general population, healthcare workers, and specific at-risk populations. Methods and findings A systematic search was carried out in 5 databases for peer-reviewed systematic reviews with meta-analyses of prevalence of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms during the pandemic published between December 31, 2019 until August 12, 2022. We identified 123 reviews of which 7 provided standardized mean differences (SMDs) either from longitudinal pre- to during pandemic study-data or from cross-sectional study-data compared to matched pre-pandemic data. Methodological quality rated with the Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews checklist scores (AMSTAR 2) instrument was generally low to moderate. Small but significant increases of depression, anxiety, and/or general mental health symptoms were reported in the general population, in people with preexisting physical health conditions, and in children (3 reviews; SMDs ranged from 0.11 to 0.28). Mental health and depression symptoms significantly increased during periods of social restrictions (1 review; SMDs of 0.41 and 0.83, respectively) but anxiety symptoms did not (SMD: 0.26). Increases of depression symptoms were generally larger and longer-lasting during the pandemic (3 reviews; SMDs depression ranged from 0.16 to 0.23) than those of anxiety (2 reviews: SMDs 0.12 and 0.18). Females showed a significantly larger increase in anxiety symptoms than males (1 review: SMD 0.15). In healthcare workers, people with preexisting mental disorders, any patient group, children and adolescents, and in students, no significant differences from pre- to during pandemic were found (2 reviews; SMD’s ranging from −0.16 to 0.48). In 116 reviews pooled cross-sectional prevalence rates of depression, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms ranged from 9% to 48% across populations. Although heterogeneity between studies was high and largely unexplained, assessment tools and cut-offs used, age, sex or gender, and COVID-19 exposure factors were found to be moderators in some reviews. The major limitations are the inability to quantify and explain the high heterogeneity across reviews included and the shortage of within-person data from multiple longitudinal studies. Conclusions A small but consistent deterioration of mental health and particularly depression during early pandemic and during social restrictions has been found in the general population and in people with chronic somatic disorders. Also, associations between mental health and the pandemic were stronger in females and younger age groups than in others. Explanatory individual-level, COVID-19 exposure, and time-course factors were scarce and showed inconsistencies across reviews. For policy and research, repeated assessments of mental health in population panels including vulnerable individuals are recommended to respond to current and future health crises.

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COVID-19 and common mental health symptoms in the early phase of the pandemic: An umbrella review of the evidence

Primary and secondary school teachers face increasing work stress, and more attention needs to be paid to their well-being. The present study was conducted to analyze the influence of work stress on the well-being of such teachers in China, and to explore the effects of family–work conflict and a self-transcendent meaning of life. A total of 562 primary and secondary school teachers completed questionnaires assessing work stress, family–work conflict, and a self-transcendent meaning of life (including grasping the meaning of failure and detachment from success or failure) as potential predictors of well-being. Work stress negatively predicted teachers’ well-being; family–work conflict mediated this relationship and a self-transcendent meaning of life moderated it. The results of this study can be used as a reference for education departments seeking to intervene to prevent teachers from developing well-being problems from the perspective of a self-transcendent meaning of life.

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The Effect of Work Stress on the Well-Being of Primary and Secondary School Teachers in China

This study aimed to understand whether Chinese early childhood (EC) teachers are willing to give birth to children to embrace the new ‘third-child’ policy. Altogether, 1042 participants (44.7% teachers, 55.3% other parents) were sampled and surveyed online. The results indicated that: (1) the teachers demonstrated fertility willingness different from other parents, and a higher percentage of teachers believed that one child would suffice; (2) the teachers highly valued partner’s support (family), employers’ support (workplace), and societal support (society); (3) their fertility willingness was influenced by the public fertility system and service, economic status and health, family relationships, career development, and emotional needs; and (4) the modern parenting and fertility beliefs, spouses’ support, and the struggle between job and parenting commitments significantly predicted the EC teachers’ fertility willingness.

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Early Childhood Teachers’ Fertility Willingness under China’s ‘Third-Child’ Policy

BACKGROUND
As millions of teachers have been forced to rely upon remote teaching due to the closure of schools during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is particularly important to understand the extent to which teacher's psychological wellbeing has been affected by this global health crisis.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of this comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis was twofold: 1) ascertain the prevalence of stress, anxiety, depression among teachers during the COVID-19 outbreak; 2) identify the associated factors of these psychological wellbeing domains of the teachers.


METHODS
Academic Search Premier, Eric, PsycInfo, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched for articles published from December 2019 and July 2021, using search terms including "COVID-19" "anxiety" "depression" "stress", and "teachers".


RESULTS
This study included 54 studies synthesising data from 256,896 teachers across 22 countries. The meta-analysis showed higher prevalence of stress (62.6%, 95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 46.1-76.6), compared to anxiety (36.3%, 95% CI: 28.5-44.9) and depression (59.9%, 95% CI: 43.4-74.4) among teachers. Teachers' experiences of these psychological issues were associated with various socio-demographic and institutional factors, including gender, nature of online teaching, job satisfaction, teaching experience, and the volume of workload. Additionally, several protective factors, such as regular exercises and provision of technical support for online teaching, reduced teachers' negative psychological experiences.


CONCLUSION
There is a need for authorities to formulate educational policies to improve teachers' wellbeing at the time of global crisis. Special attention should be paid to assist female teachers in overcoming physical and mental stressors.

COVID-19 pandemic-related anxiety, stress, and depression among teachers: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

The sustainable development of early childhood institutions in aging China calls for the sustainable development of early childhood teachers, which should attend to the balanced development between male and female teachers. Yet this issue has not been adequately investigated in the literature. To fill this research gap, this study explored the gender differences in Chinese early childhood (EC) teachers’ professional identity (PI) and emotional labor strategies. Altogether, 250 teachers (146 female and 104 male, Mage= 30.28 years, SD = 7.81) from Southern China were sampled and surveyed. First, the independent samples t-tests revealed significant gender differences in teachers’ PI, deep acting, and surface acting. Second, the structural equation modelling results demonstrated that PI fully mediated the relationship between teacher educational attainment, years of teaching experience, and natural and deep acting. Third, multigroup analysis confirmed different mediation paths for female and male teachers. These findings suggest that male and female early childhood teachers differed in their sense of PI and use of emotional labor strategies. Therefore, future policymaking efforts should design and implement teacher professional development (PD) programs and teacher support mechanisms catering to male EC teachers’ needs, characteristics, and difficulties in the Chinese EC workforce.

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Emotional Labor and Professional Identity in Chinese Early Childhood Teachers: The Gendered Moderation Models

This study explored the family language policy, bilingual parenting profiles, and the predictors among Chinese parents in Singapore. Altogether 175 parents of Chinese-English bilingual preschoolers (aged 2;6–5;6) were sampled and surveyed. The research results indicated that: (1) a majority of the parents (93.7%) believed in early bilingualism but differed in their beliefs about the appropriate starting age for early bilingualism; (2) two latent profiles of bilingual parenting emerged: Radical Bilingual Parenting (n = 91, 52.00%, bilingual reading activities from Age 2, longer hours of bilingual parent–child conversation); Moderate Bilingual Parenting (84, 48.00%, bilingual reading activities after Age 3, shorter hours of bilingual parent–child conversation); and (3) child’s age, their preschool education experience, and parents’ belief about the appropriate age to start early bilingualism predicted the profile of bilingual parenting. Implications for language policymaking and early bilingual parenting are discussed. 

Family language policy and bilingual parenting in multilingual Singapore: latent profiles and its predictors

This study explored the patterns and predictors of aspect marker acquisition of Chinese preschoolers speaking Mandarin Chinese as their first language (L1). Based on a corpus drawn from 157 preschoolers from Beijing, China, this study set out to explore (1) the developmental pattern of aspect marker acquisition; (2) the interactional pattern between grammatical aspect markers and lexical aspects; (3) the production of temporal adverbs with aspect markers; and (4) the predictors of aspect marker acquisition. The main research findings included the following: (1) the Jonckheere–Terpstra test revealed an age-related increase in children’s production of aspect markers, and in particular, there was a significant increase in grammatical aspect markers and lexical aspect subclasses from age 4;6 (Year; Month) onwards; (2) the Friedman’s ANOVAs indicated that -LE was frequently used in combination with most of the lexical aspect subclasses, among them the achievement was the most frequently co-occurring subclass, while the activities came second; (3) a series of Chi-square tests showed that using temporal adverbs in combination with aspect markers became increasingly common among older children; (4) the hierarchical regression analysis identified children’s preschooling experience as a significant predictor of their early aspectual development, after controlling for the other variables.

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Luyao Liang

Papers

COVID-19 pandemic-related anxiety, stress, and depression among teachers: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Emotional Labor and Professional Identity in Chinese Early Childhood Teachers: The Gendered Moderation Models

Early Childhood Teachers’ Fertility Willingness under China’s ‘Third-Child’ Policy

Family language policy and bilingual parenting in multilingual Singapore: latent profiles and its predictors

Predicting Chinese Preschoolers’ Acquisition of Aspect Markers: A Corpus-Based Study