Psycho-Affective Risk Factors of Mexican Schoolteachers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

• In Event: COVID-19 and Mexican Elementary Education: Analysis, Alternatives, and Lessons Learned From the Pandemic

Abstract

This research is a part of the larger project Education during a contingency: An analysis of Mexican education during the Covid 19 pandemic. The objective of the present study was to analyze the effects of the pandemic on wellbeing and psycho-affective risk factors in Mexican K12 teachers. For this study the variable of psycho-affective risk factors included afflictive emotional states such as anxiety, sadness, stress, and insomnia. To evaluate these variables, a self-report instrument was designed and validated, that included items related to wellbeing and psycho-affective risk factors contextualized within the health contingency´s confinement period. The methodology used in this study was based on a quantitative, cross-sectional and comparative approach. A sample of n=46,142 professors participated in this study, belonging to both public and private schools, of which n=12,574 were primary school teachers (33.3% male, 66.6% female), n=21,922 secondary school professors (37.3% male and 62.6% female), and n=11,646 worked at the high school level (45.9% males and 54% females). For the data analysis, a general statistical description of the sample was performed, as well as a 2x3x4 ANOVA, using sex (female, male), teaching school level (primary, secondary and high school education), and psycho-affective risk factors (anxiety, sadness, stress, insomnia) as segmentation variables, followed by a structural equation analysis.

Among the main findings, it can be observed that there are significant differences between men and women in relation to the variables associated with psycho-affective risk, particularly regarding perceived stress where woman show the largest effect, and significantly higher at the primary school level. On the other hand, the structural equations analysis shows that the psycho-affective risk variables of anxiety and constant sense of worry have a greater effect in men, while in women the greatest effect can be seen in relation to sadness and insomnia. Perceived stress appears to have the same effect on both men and women according to the structural analysis. Regarding school teaching level, primary school teachers, followed by secondary education professors, show significantly higher levels of psycho affective risks in general, being constant worry and perceived stress the variables with the greatest effect. It is concluded that, although there are significant differences among the different variables associated with psycho-affective risk depending on the teachers´ sex and teaching educational level, these factors affected with different intensity male and female professors from the different educational levels. Finally, it can be observed from this analysis that the lower the educational level to which teachers belonged, the greater the perception of psycho-affective risk, a situation that is even more accentuated in female teachers.

Authors

• Cimenna Chao-Rebolledo, Universidad Iberoamericana
  Presenting Author

• Miguel Angel Rivera-Navarro, Universidad Iberoamericana
  Presenting Author