Job satisfaction, psychological well-being, and perceived stress among teachers during the pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has urged the Governments to take innumerable restrictions to contain the virus-like lockdowns, movement restrictions including, the closure of educational institutions (Tandon, 2021). In around 144 countries, UNESCO reported that the educational institutions had shifted to digital teaching platforms from traditional classroom teaching, which approximately affected 1.2 billion students and teachers (UNESCO, 2020). Besser et al. (2020) highlighted that the sudden change in work patterns resulted in teachers' stress and confusion due to a lack of awareness and confidence with digital teaching platforms (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 2020, Besser et al., 2020).

Similarly, the educational institutions in India had also adapted to digital teaching platforms. However, literature available from India on teaching professionals during the pandemic is scarce. To understand the experiences of teaching professionals working from home during pandemics, the researchers conducted a web-based survey to measure job satisfaction, psychological well-being, and stress. Questionnaires were circulated using various social media platforms. The online questionnaire consisted of a semi-structured proforma for socio-demographic details, Job satisfaction scale (Macdonald and Macintyre, 1997), Psychological well-being scale (Diener et al., 2010), and Perceived stress scale (PSS) (Cohen et al., 1983). The data was assessed using the Statistical Program SPSS 25 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL).

Results

A total of 302 individuals participated in the index study. The mean age of the participants was 36.36 ± 8.37 years, and the majority were females (75.5%). Three-fourths of the participants were married (77.8%) and belonged to a nuclear family (75%). Most of the teachers worked in college setup (85%) while the others were in school facility (15%). The majority of the participants had attended online workshops regarding online education provider courses (64.6%). Major problems faced by the teachers while teaching online were: Poor internet connectivity (45%), difficulty in maintaining the discipline of the students (29%), and difficulty in online supervision (24.5%). Nearly half of them felt that teaching in-person (44%) is better than online (35%). Interestingly, 80% of the participants switch to traditional classroom teaching methods. Fig. 1 highlights the main concerns faced by the participants during the pandemic. Changes in their work pattern (42.9%) were the most common concern, followed by an increase in the workload (22.6%), loss of job (14%), loss of regular pay(12%), and decrease in revenue (10%).

Fig. 1

Representing work-related variables.

With regards to perceived stress score [PSS], the majority of the participants reported having moderate levels of stress (70.2%), followed by high (20.5%) and low-stress levels (9.3%). Stress scores (r = 0.37, p = 0.0001) had negative correlation with age and job satisfaction (r = 0.36, p = 0.0001). The psychological well-being [PWB] of the subjects was summed up to be categorized as deficient (76%) and low (24%) as none of the participants were in the average or high-level category of psychological well-being. More than half of the subjects had high (15%) to very high job satisfaction (41%) scores followed by average (22.2%), low (14%), and very low (8%), respectively. Job satisfaction was found to be positively correlated with age (r = 0.17, p = 0.002) and psychological well-being (r = 1.0, p = 0.0001).

Our study found that most of the participants had moderate levels of stress, and the psychological well-being of all the participants was severely affected. Stress scores had negatively correlated with age and job satisfaction, indicating that the elderly individuals had less stress and higher job satisfaction.

In our study, 90% of the participants reported moderate to high levels of stress due to various reasons like a sudden change in work patterns, increased workload, loss of regular pay, and fear of losing jobs. In addition, three-fourths of the participants in our study were females. Increased workload, additional household responsibilities, excessive worries about children, fear of contamination could also have led to significant stress among the participants.

Psychological well-being [PWB] was most affected in our study, as all the participants ranged from deficient to low categories. Regarding job satisfaction, scores were average to low in half of the participants, whereas the other half had good job satisfaction levels. These variables influenced each other, and a positive correlation was noted between the two, suggesting poor PWB can lead to poor JSS scores (McLean et al., 2019a, Prasad et al., 2020). Findings are similar to a previous study among teachers that pointed towards post-COVID pandemic decreased professional well-being and increased teaching difficulties (Besser et al., 2020, Ng, 2007, Ozamiz-Etxebarria et al., 2021a). Good job satisfaction scores in half of the participants could probably be related to the safety of staying at home and with the family and decreasing the risk of contracting COVID infection (Besser et al., 2020; Selvaraj et al., 2021).

The mean age of the sample was 36.36 ± 8.37 years indicating the participants were middle-aged predominantly. A positive correlation was found between job satisfaction and age, meaning job satisfaction was higher in older people and lowered in younger people; these findings are on par with the previous literature (Clark et al., 1996). The U-Shaped hypothesis curve between age and job satisfaction also highlighted that middle-aged individuals have more job satisfaction (Hulin and Smith, 1965, Prasad et al., 2020). Stress was negatively correlated with age, indicating the elderly were less stressed than the younger participants. Furthermore elderly also had good job satisfaction and less stress (Thakur et al., 2021).

Despite the uncertain condition of the pandemic, teaching professionals have maintained their fundamental role and dedicated their services even with compromised support and resources. As the Omicron variant is increasing and few states in India are going back to lockdown, special attention should be given to the most vulnerable teachers' psychological well-being and job satisfaction. They play an essential role in shaping the future of society.

Declaration

There is no financial support given or receive to this research study.