Are teachers "butter lamps"? Teacher stress in Chinese Minzu "ethnic" schools.

China is a unified multi-ethnic country. Although research on teacher stress is plentiful in this context, the specific case of Minzu ("ethnic") teachers is under-researched. Using Minzu schools located in a diverse county of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (North China), as a case study, the authors examine factors behind Minzu teacher stress. Using mixed methods, three main results were identified by analyzing interviews and questionnaires with both the software NVivo and dialogical discourse analysis: societal, school and Self factors. In general, the teachers confirmed that their job was extremely stressful. While some of these aspects derived directly from the specific context of Minzu education (e.g., rural and pastoralist families send their children to towns leading to teachers taking over parents' responsibilities), some elements were also found in other contexts of Chinese education and/or internationally. The article ends with some recommendations specifically about Minzu aspects in the treatment of teacher stress, which will also be of interest for international audiences.

Teachers' perception of aggressive student behavior through the lens of chronic worry and resignation, and its association with psychophysiological stress: An observational study.

Aggressive student behavior is considered a leading risk factor for teacher stress. However, teachers' coping styles may affect how they perceive and respond to aggressive student behavior. This study tests whether teachers' perceptions of aggressive student behavior mainly mirror objectively observed aggression in presence of the teacher (as coded by external observers) or whether teachers' perception of aggressive student behavior primarily reflects teachers' avoidant coping styles, such as chronic worry and resignation. Finally, we examine whether observed and teacher-perceived aggression relates to increased vital exhaustion and psychophysiological stress among teachers (i.e., higher hair cortisol concentration). In an ambulatory assessment study, we administered self-reports to 42 Swiss teachers to assess perceived student aggression, chronic worry, resignation, and vital exhaustion. Additionally, four consecutive lessons per teacher were filmed, and aggressive student behavior in presence of the teacher was coded by four trained external observers. The concentration of cortisol was assessed in hair samples. Results showed that teacher-perceived and observed aggression were moderately associated. Observed aggression was related to teacher perceptions to a much lesser extent than teachers' avoidant coping styles, that is, chronic worry and resignation. While teacher-perceived student aggression was associated with teachers' self-reported vital exhaustion, we did not find any significant association with hair-cortisol concentration. Our findings suggest that teachers perceive student aggression through the lens of their coping styles. Teachers' dysfunctional coping styles are associated with an overestimation of student aggression. Teachers' overestimation of student aggression relates to higher levels of vital exhaustion. Therefore, it is crucial to identify and change teachers' dysfunctional coping styles to prevent a vicious cycle of dysfunctional teacher-student interactions.

Understanding Factors that Moderate the Relationship Between Student ADHD Behaviors and Teacher Stress.

Teaching is a stressful profession, and teacher stress has been shown to be associated with job dissatisfaction, attrition from the field, and negative outcomes for teachers and their students. A major contributor to teacher stress is disruptive student behavior. Given that students with or at-risk for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) demonstrate high rates of disruptive behaviors and are present in nearly every classroom, studying the connection between student ADHD symptoms and teacher stress may provide useful insights for better supporting teachers and their students. Aims of this study were to (1) assess the replicability of a previous finding that teachers rate their students with elevated ADHD symptoms to be more stressful to teach than students without these symptoms and (2) explore the extent to which key factors (i.e., overall work-related stress and student-teacher relationship quality) moderate the relationship between student ADHD symptoms and related teacher stress. Participants were 97 K-2nd grade teachers who completed an online survey about themselves and two male students in their classroom. Results showed that teachers report students with elevated levels of ADHD symptoms and impairment to be more stressful to work with than students who do not exhibit these symptoms (d = 1.52). Additionally, overall work-related stress and conflict in the student-teacher relationship exacerbated the relationship between student ADHD symptom severity and related teacher stress, whereas closeness in the student-teacher relationship mitigated this association. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Early Childhood Education Teacher Workforce: Stress in Relation to Identity and Choices.

The early childhood education teacher workforce is consistently relied upon to bolster children's academic and socioemotional development in preparation for kindergarten and long-term outcomes. This is especially true of children who, historically overlooked and marginalized, are labeled "at risk." While research has focused on pervasive stressors as obstacles to these classroom professionals (e.g., teacher/teaching stress, curricular mandates, quality assessments, COVID-19), there is less research on stress in relation to the formation of teacher identity; specifically, how stress contributes to and detracts from the formation of a teacher's micro-identity, and how negative impacts of stress to the micro-identity may contribute to teachers' decisions to leave the field. Although once considered to be one of the fastest growing industries, The Great Resignation, as it has come to be known, estimates up to 25-30% of the workforce leave annually. To better understand the choices teachers make to leave the profession, the current study examined the influence of stress on teachers' microidentity by centering the voices of six Head Start teachers. Implementing a qualitative design, this investigation asked (a) Who are the Head Start teachers in the workforce today? (b) What are the particular stressors with which they contend? (c) How does the micro-identity of these teachers change as a result of stress, and what are the potential choices that follow? Results and findings indicated that Head Start teachers experience (1) stress as reality, (2) stress-shaped identities, and (3) identity-mediated choice. Implications and insights are discussed. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10643-023-01468-w.

Predictors of Psychological Strain and Allostatic Load in Teachers: Examining the Long-Term Effects of Biopsychosocial Risk and Protective Factors Using a LASSO Regression Approach.

Teacher stress significantly challenges teachers' health, teaching quality, and students' motivation and achievement. Thus, it is crucial to identify factors that effectively prevent it. Using a LASSO regression approach, we examined which factors predict teachers' psychological strain and allostatic load over two years. The study included 42 teachers (28 female, Mage = 39.66, SD = 11.99) and three measurement time points: At baseline, we assessed teachers' (a) self-reports (i.e., on personality, coping styles, and psychological strain), (b) behavioral data (i.e., videotaped lessons), and (c) allostatic load (i.e., body mass index, blood pressure, and hair cortisol concentration). At 1- and 2-year follow-ups, psychological strain and allostatic load biomarkers were reassessed. Neuroticism and perceived student disruptions at baseline emerged as the most significant risk factors regarding teachers' psychological strain two years later, while a positive core self-evaluation was the most important protective factor. Perceived support from other teachers and the school administration as well as adaptive coping styles were protective factors against allostatic load after two years. The findings suggest that teachers' psychological strain and allostatic load do not primarily originate from objective classroom conditions but are attributable to teachers' idiosyncratic perception of this environment through the lens of personality and coping strategies.

The Mealtime Behavior Problems of Children with Developmental Disabilities and the Teacher's Stress in Inclusive Preschools.

With an increasing number of children with developmental disabilities entering inclusive preschools, preschool teachers face more behavioral problems in class. Preschool teachers typically attempt to address mealtime behavior problems of children with and without developmental disabilities simultaneously in class. This study used qualitative research to identify the stress triggers of preschool teachers addressing the mealtime behavior problems of children with developmental disabilities. Five preschool teachers attended semi-structured interviews. The results indicated that most children with developmental disabilities had problems with eating only preferred foods, using eating utensils appropriately during mealtime, becoming distracted from eating, and becoming frustrated with the classroom routine. Although solving these problems triggered stress in the preschool teachers, their stress was mainly in response to the children's parents, other children's imitation of inappropriate mealtime behaviors, and classroom schedule time management. Most of the preschool teachers stated that they had insufficient support. Preschool teachers require specialized information and strategies for improving the mealtime behaviors of children with developmental disabilities.

Identifying Teacher Beliefs and Experiences Associated with Curriculum Implementation Fidelity in Early Childhood Education.

Implementation science research points to the importance of improving implementation fidelity to improve outcomes and sustainability of interventions. Despite our growing understanding of factors related to implementation in K-12 settings, much less is known about factors influencing implementation in early childhood education contexts. Understanding factors related to how well early childhood educators implement an intervention is critical to developing ways to improve implementation fidelity and ultimately education quality. The current study explored how teacher beliefs and experiences were related to initial uptake and later implementation in a sample of 87 early childhood educators implementing a novel comprehensive curriculum, STREAMin3. Across teacher dosage, classroom dosage, and teacher responsiveness, teachers with more positive initial perceptions of the curriculum had higher implementation. Teacher stress and perception of center climate were inconsistently related to implementation. Public preschool teachers and teachers with fewer years of teaching experience also reported higher levels of implementation. Implications for supporting teachers to improve implementation fidelity are discussed.

Early Childhood Teachers' Work Environment, Perceived Personal Stress, and Professional Commitment in South Korea.

Background: Teachers' professional commitment is essential for providing high-quality early care and education (ECE) to young children. Previous studies suggest that teachers' perceptions of low levels of personal stress and a satisfactory work environment are both likely to be associated with their greater commitment to work. Objective: The current study examined the incremental validity of work environment as a predictor of professional commitment beyond personal stress perceived by ECE teachers in South Korea. Specifically, we hypothesized that teachers' satisfactory work environment would predict a significant amount of variance in professional commitment beyond personal stress. Methods: Survey data were collected from 322 ECE teachers in center-based programs in Korea. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to examine the factor structure of the professional commitment latent variable. Hierarchical regression models were tested in structural equation modeling with the professional commitment latent variable. Results: CFA for professional commitment demonstrated that a one-factor model was the best solution. The final model explained 40% of the variance in professional commitment (RMSEA = .067; CFI = .906). Findings indicated the incremental validity of work environment in predicting professional commitment beyond personal stress. Conclusions: The current findings emphasize the importance of teachers' experiences around having a satisfactory work environment and personal stress, either job-related or not, to retain teachers in ECE settings long-term. Program and policy level support to promote teachers' well-being in their personal lives as well as professional lives may be critical to improve teachers' professional commitment.

Early Childhood Education Teacher Well-Being: Performativity as a Means of Coping.

Detrimental circumstances (e.g., poverty, homelessness) may affect parents, parenting, and children. These circumstances may lead to children being labeled "at risk" for school failure. To ameliorate this risk, more school and school earlier (e.g., Head Start) is offered. To improve child outcomes, Head Start teachers are expected to bolster children?s academic readiness in a manner that is beneficially warm, circulating warmth in their classrooms to sustain positive teacher-child relationships and the positive climate of the classroom. The Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS; Pianta et al., 2008) is one tool by which these domains of warmth are assessed. There are, however, significant personal and professional stressors with which Head Start teachers contend which the CLASS (Pianta et al., 2008) does not consider in its scoring methods. Uplifting the voices of six Head Start teachers, the present study implemented individual and focus group interviews during the summer and fall months of 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, asking (a) What were the stories, histories, and lived experiences of these Head Start teachers with regard to stress and warmth in a time of crisis? and (b) How did these teachers understand and approach the CLASS (Pianta et al., 2008) and its measures of their warmth? Data demonstrated Head Start teachers engaged in a type of performativity to 1) mask their stress, potentially worsening their levels of stress in order to maintain warmth for their students' sake, and 2) outwit the prescribed CLASS (Pianta et al., 2008) observations. Implications and insights are discussed. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10643-022-01387-2.

Teachers' emotional exhaustion before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: Neither emotional exertion nor vacation feeling.

Purpose: In this paper, we use latent change models to examine the changes in in-service teachers' emotional exhaustion before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of the pandemic, teachers are confronted with challenging tasks, which can lead to stress and burnout. Resultingly, teachers' stress experiences have been examined in different studies. However, often the change in those experiences remains unclear. Against this background, we investigate longitudinally how the emotional exhaustion of a cohort of German teachers changes. In addition, we examine whether gender, age, teaching degree studied, or the amount of time spent in distance learning affected the change during the pandemic. Methods: We surveyed German veteran teachers (N = 382) about their emotional exhaustion at three measurement points. The first two surveys were before the COVID-19 pandemic (t 1: winter 2016/2017; t 2: spring: 2019), and the third measurement point was after the first lockdown Germany in summer 2020 (t 3). To answer the research questions, we used neighbor-change models. Results: Emotional exhaustion increased between the first two measurement points (t 1, t 2) but decreased in the following period (t 2, t 3). The changes in the two periods did not differ significantly from each other. Neither gender, age, nor the teaching profession studied influenced the change in emotional exhaustion. The hours spent in distance learning were also not a significant predictor. Conclusion: In summary, the COVID-19 pandemic does not appear to be associated with higher emotional exhaustion across the veteran teachers. However, there are some teachers whose emotional exhaustion rises to high levels. Those teachers deserve special attention.

Australian teacher stress, well-being, self-efficacy, and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2020 COVID pandemic radically altered the way in which individuals live and work. For teachers, this entailed a shift in their teaching practice, with large numbers of schools around Australia and the world closing for prolonged periods of time and moving to an "online" format. This required teachers to quickly adapt their teaching practices adding further stress to an already stressful environment. In this article, we examine the relationships between teachers' stress, teachers' self-efficacy, and teachers' well-being during the COVID pandemic. The study presents the results from a quantitative survey undertaken in June and July 2020 with 534 teachers around Australia. While the study found that, overall, most teachers (77.29%) reported that they were not feeling anxious in their teaching role, teachers' responses indicated that they were experiencing high levels of stress and low levels of positive feelings such as joy, positivity, and contentment in their work during the COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacting their well-being and self-efficacy.

Longitudinal Associations Between Core Self-Evaluation, Vital Exhaustion and Hair Cortisol in Teachers and the Mediating Effects of Resignation Tendency.

Work-related stress appears to be especially high among teachers. However, most research on teacher stress relies exclusively on teachers' self-reports. Little is known about the physiological correlates of affective stress in teachers. This longitudinal study investigates the relationship between core self-evaluation and adverse psychological and physiological stress outcomes in 42 teachers. Self-report questionnaires were used to assess core self-evaluation, vital exhaustion, and resignation tendency. The concentration of cortisol was assessed using hair samples. One year after the initial measurement, vital exhaustion and hair cortisol were assessed again. Path-analytic mediational models showed that core self-evaluation strongly predicted vital exhaustion, and resignation tendency partially mediated this relationship. However, core self-evaluation did not predict hair cortisol concentration. These findings suggest that core self-evaluation plays a crucial role in preventing vital exhaustion among teachers. A positive core self-evaluation seems beneficial for teachers' primary and secondary appraisal and an essential resource for the long-term prevention of self-reported vital exhaustion.

Teachers Supporting Teachers: A Social Network Perspective on Collegial Stress Support and Emotional Wellbeing Among Elementary and Middle School Educators.

School mental health practitioners and researchers are increasingly concerned about educator job-related stress and its implications for teacher burnout, teaching efficacy, turnover, and student outcomes. Educators' collegial networks in their schools are natural resources for stress support, yet little is known about the extent to which educators seek support from their colleagues in managing their stress and whether these relationships promote their emotional wellbeing. Utilizing peer nomination and self-report data from 370 educators in 17 elementary and middle schools, we found patterns in whom educators nominated as a source of stress support. Specifically, educators more often nominated colleagues who worked in the same role, grade, and/or subject, and those similar in age and who had similar or more experience. Furthermore, men and educators of color more often nominated same-gender and same-race colleagues, respectively, whereas these trends were not observed for women or White educators. However, the prevalence of these characteristics among colleagues nominated as a source of stress support was not often significantly associated with educators' stress and burnout. Rather, educators' level of burnout was positively related to the burnout among those in their stress support networks. In addition, educators' stress and burnout were positively related to the stress and burnout of their colleagues with whom they spent the most time. These findings highlight how educators' perceptions of stress and burnout may be shared within their collegial networks and have implications for a role for colleagues in teacher stress-reduction and wellbeing-focused interventions.

Perceived stress and salivary biomarkers in educators: comparison among three stress reduction activities.

Background: The teaching profession is a potentially stressful occupation with up to 30% of all novice teachers leaving the profession and annual teacher turnover is higher when compared with turnover of all other occupations. This study investigated the effects of a one-time stress reduction activity (meditation, yoga, or aerobic exercise) in university and K-12 educators who were part of one-day seminar on Stress Reduction. Methods: Participants (N = 26) self-selected their stress reduction activity, completed a demographic questionnaire, educator stress self-assessment tool, and visual analogue scales indicating current stress levels. Salivary cortisol and amylase levels were measured before, immediately after, and 30 minutes after completion of the stress reduction activity. Results: Three (time) by three (activity) mixed factorial ANOVAs were computed for salivary analytes. The ANOVA for cortisol revealed a significant interaction (F (4, 66) = 3.60, p = .01). Comparisons showed significant differences with the aerobic exercise group having significantly higher cortisol levels at the 30-minute post-activity level when compared to the meditation (p < .05, Cohen's d = .74) and yoga groups (p < .05, Cohen's d = .52). Conclusion: Overall, the one-time activity of meditation and yoga showed lowered salivary cortisol levels at 30-minutes post-activity when compared to aerobic exercise activity. Additional research to examine the effects of stress reduction on educators in the work setting is needed.

Thriving Beyond Resilience Despite Stress: A Psychometric Evaluation of the Newly Developed Teacher Stress Scale and Teacher Thriving Scale.

Building on theoretical and empirical insights and applying the thriving theory as the conceptual framework, the authors developed two new teacher-specific scales, namely the Teacher Stress Scale (TSS) and the Teacher Thriving Scale (TTS). The goal of this investigation was to evaluate the psychometric properties of these two scales. Data were collected through an online questionnaire administered to a national sample of 122 participating early childhood teachers (ages 22-72 years, M = 41.01) teaching in preschool through third grade in 26 states of the United States during the 2020-2021 school year amidst COVID-19. This study revealed some important psychometric results. First, with respect to their internal structures, both the TSS and the TTS appeared to be best represented as bifactorial and trifactorial, respectively. Specifically, the TSS comprised two constructs: (1) Inadequate School-based Support, and (2) Teaching-related Demands; and the TTS encompassed three constructs: (1) Adaptability and Flexibility, (2) Personal Strengths and Professional Growth, and (3) Positive Mindset. Second, the negative correlation between the TSS and the TTS provided discriminant evidence for each other's construct validity, while the positive correlations between the TTS and six conceptually cognate constructs (Stress Resilience, Resilience Coping, Coping Efficacy, Teaching Satisfaction, Emotional Support, and Gratitude) demonstrated convergent evidence for construct validity for the TTS. Third, both the overall TSS and the overall TTS as well as their subscales exhibited good internal consistency reliability. Fourth, both the overall TSS and the overall TTS also demonstrated test-retest reliability.

Barriers to and Facilitators for Teachers' Wellbeing.

Teaching is widely recognized as a stressful profession, which has been connected to burnout and high turnover of qualified teachers. Despite increasing attention on teacher wellbeing, stress management interventions are often underutilized and demonstrate small effect sizes, and research on teachers' informal stress management practices and desired resources is limited. It is likely that formal and informal intervention effectiveness is limited by teachers' ability to access existing resources and navigate the complex educational systems they inhabit. The study explored the barriers to and facilitators for teachers' engagement in formal and informal stress management interventions and desired resources across socioecological levels. Thirty-two teachers participated across four focus groups. Inductive thematic analysis was used to identify relevant themes. Personal barriers (e.g., guilt about self-prioritization), environmental barriers (e.g., mixed messages about self-care), and improved campus resources (e.g., scheduled opportunities to destress) were common themes. Recommendations for supporting teachers' wellbeing include self-care affirming messages from peers and administrators, campus- and district-level changes to remove logistical barriers to stress management, and increased connectedness among campus community members.

Greek teachers' resilience levels during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown and its association with attitudes towards emergency remote teaching and perceived stress.

The mandatory closure of schools due to the Covid-19 pandemic affected the mental health, and, by extension, the personal and professional life of teachers. This study explored their level of resilience during the pandemic and its association with attitudes towards emergency remote teaching and perceived stress. Data were collected through the administration of three self-report instruments: (a) the "Teachers' Professional Attitudes and Behaviors Scale", (b) the "Teachers' Resilience Scale", and (c) the "Perceived Stress Scale". The sample consisted of 1415 general teachers from central Greece. Teachers were found to possess neutral attitudes towards emergency remote teaching, moderate levels of resilience, and experienced slightly increased levels of stress. The examined constructs were largely influenced by some of the teachers' demographic and professional characteristics. Teachers' perceptions of resilience predicted their attitudes to emergency remote teaching and stress levels during the pandemic. The study has reaffirmed the importance of holding sufficient levels of resilience to cope with adverse circumstances and has offered clear directions about which groups of teachers are in most need for counselling and professional support so that their resilience is strengthened.

Teachers' understandings of the social and professional support needed to implement change in Qatar.

Currently, Qatar is implementing an educational reform to enhance teaching and learning in public and private schools. The Qatar National School Accreditation significantly impacted Qatar's private schools, requiring teachers to implement various mandated educational changes. Using House (1981) types of social support, this qualitative, phenomenological study was designed to explore teachers' understandings regarding the social and professional support they need to implement educational change at an international school in Qatar. To help teachers engage in change, findings revealed that educational leaders need to heed teacher wellbeing during educational reform, educational change should be contextualized and tailored to the needs of teachers, and support should be offered to reduce teachers' stress and facilitate the change process. Recommendations for educational leaders trying to help teachers implement mandated educational change are provided in light of the derived findings.

Job strain and sense of coherence: Associations with stress-related outcomes among teachers.

Background: Teachers constitute an occupational group experiencing high levels of stress and with high sick-leave rates. Therefore, examining potentially protective factors is important. While prior research has mainly focused on the link between teachers' own experiences of their work environment and stress-related outcomes, it is also possible that colleagues' perception of the work environment and their possibilities for dealing with work-related stress contribute to influencing individual teachers' stress. Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate how teachers' reports of high job strain (i.e. high demands and low control) and sense of coherence (SOC), as well as the concentration of colleagues reporting high strain and high SOC, were associated with perceived stress and depressed mood. Methods: The data were derived from the Stockholm Teacher Survey, with information from two cross-sectional web surveys performed in 2014 and in 2016 (N=2732 teachers in 205 school units). Two-level random intercept linear regression models were performed. Results: High job strain at the individual level was associated with higher levels of perceived stress and depressed mood, but less so for individuals with high SOC. Furthermore, a greater proportion of colleagues reporting high SOC was associated with lower levels of perceived stress and depressed mood at the individual level. Conclusions: High SOC may be protective against work-related stress among teachers. Additionally, the proportion of colleagues reporting high SOC was related to less individual stress, suggesting a protective effect of school-level collective SOC.

The role of school organizational conditions in teacher psychological resilience and stress during COVID-19 pandemic: A moderated mediation model.

Educational revisions facilitate the relief of teacher stress by means of enhancing school organizational conditions. However, limited research has explored the effects of school organizational conditions on teacher stress in China. Using a sample of 734 primary and secondary school teachers from 30 provinces or municipalities of China, this study examined the effects of school organizational conditions on teacher stress in China, with a particular focus on the mediating role of psychological resilience and moderating role of perceived COVID-19 crisis strength. The results demonstrated that school organizational conditions were negatively associated with teacher stress. Furthermore, psychological resilience partially mediated the relation between school organizational conditions and teacher stress. In addition, perceived COVID-19 crisis strength significantly moderated the direct and indirect relations between school organizational conditions and teacher stress. The relations between school organizational conditions and teacher stress and between school organizational conditions and psychological resilience were stronger for teachers who perceived low levels of COVID-19 crisis strength. However, the indirect relation between psychological resilience and stress was stronger for teachers who perceived high levels of COVID-19 crisis strength. Implications have been provided accordingly.