2021 Theses Doctoral

An Online Investigation into School Teachers’ Experiences of Stress and Coping Strategies While Teaching During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Exploring the Prevalence of Depression, Anxiety, and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

D'Mello, Lauren

One year since over 1.2 billion learners were affected by school closures in response to the COVID-19 epidemic, this study sought predictors of past month perceived stress for K-12 teachers. The sample (N=159) had 89.3% (N=143) born in the United States, 89.9% female (N=143), 69.8% White (N= 111), 9.4% Asian (N=15), 9.4% Black (N= 15), and 8.8% Latino (N= 14)—with mean age of 39.53 years (min=23, max=70, SD=1.138), while 72.3% (N=115) had a current partner. For education level, the mean was category 2.87 (min=2, max= 4, SD=.517) for closest to a master’s degree with a mean annual household income of category 5.39 (min=1, max=9, SD=1.034) for $50,000-$99,000. They had a mean of 13.36 years (min=1, max=45, SD=13.36) teaching.

Teachers reported high stress related to being a teacher, high fear about the transmission of COVID-19 in the school setting, high anger about COVID-19 decision-making and policies, and moderate coping overall as a teacher during the pandemic. In backward stepwise regression, controlling for social desirability, higher past month Perceived Stress (PSS-4) was significantly predicted by: Yes, lost social support in the last year due to death/change in status; Lower annual household income; Lower rating of mental/emotional health during pandemic; Greater negative changes in physical/mental health during pandemic; Greater symptoms of mental health disorders during pandemic; and Lower level of social support/lower number of people providing it—while the model (R 2=.568, Adj R 2 =.547) accounted for 54.7% of the variance.

Qualitative data showed their most stressful experiences during the pandemic: Category I: Coping with Overwhelming and Varied Feelings; Category II: New Challenges Teaching with Exorbitant Hours; Category III: Teachers as Disrespected, Blameworthy, Disposable Multi-Tasking Servants. Other categories showed how teachers coped: Category I: Adaptive Coping Through Self-Calming Activities; Category II: Adaptive Coping Through Social Support and Companionship; Category III: Adaptive Coping by Entering Mental Health Treatment; Category IV: Adaptive Cognitive Coping—as well as the unfortunate Category V: Maladaptive Coping Through Alcohol/Drug Use and Food.

Implications and recommendations suggest directions for future research and practice, including using new short tools in this study in future research and as screening tools.