Teachers are more likely to report being stressed than other working adults (Pic: Getty Creative)
Teachers and school leaders are more than twice as likely to be stressed as other working adults, according to a new survey.
Educators were also more likely to suffer from burnout or depression than the general working population, and to admit that they are not coping well with job-related stress.
And one in three teachers and principals say they are likely to leave their current job by the end of this school year, as increased pressure as a result of pandemic takes its toll on well-being.
Almost three quarters (73%) of teachers and 85% of principals say they are experiencing frequent job related stress.
This compares with 35% among adults in other occupations, according to the survey carried out by the RAND Corporation.
Female and Hispanic/Latinx teachers were more likely to report feeling stressed, as were mid-career teachers - those with between six and 20 years of experience.
The survey, funded by the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), also revealed that the pandemic was a major factor in increasing stress.
Almost half (47%) of teachers said that supporting their students to recover learning lost as a result of the pandemic was one of their top-three sources of job-related stress.
“Teaching has never been an easy job, but the added stress of the pandemic, ensuing shortages, safety issues and the injection of politics into our classrooms has done a real number on our educators,” said AFT president Randi Weingarten.
“Teachers have told us that their dedication to working with students keeps them in their jobs, even though pandemic conditions and safety concerns have made teaching more challenging.”
The survey also found that 59% of teachers and 48% of school principals reported feeling burnt-out, compared with 44% of other working adults.
Just over a quarter - 28% - of educators said they experienced symptoms of depression, compared with 17% of their non-teaching peers, while twice as many teachers said they were not coping well with job-related stress (24% to 12%).
Teachers with six to 10 years’ experience were significantly more likely to say they were burnt-out or report feelings of depression, or to say they were not coping well with stress, than other educators.
For school leaders, the biggest source of stress was finding sufficient staff, a problem that may be exacerbated by the impact of the pandemic, as increased stress risks creating an exodus of teachers and school leaders.
Around a third of teachers and principals said they were likely to leave their current job by the end of this academic year, up from around a quarter of teachers and 15% of principals when a similar survey was carried out last year.
Teachers who reported having poor well-being or stressful working conditions were more likely to say they wanted to quit.
And although awareness of the need to support employee well-being has undoubtedly risen as a result of the pandemic, teachers were less likely than those in other occupations to have access to counselling services.
While around a third of teachers reported having access to counselling through their employers, this compares with around half of adults employed in other sectors.
