Exploring Content-Area-Specific Impacts of Teachers’ Mental Health on Teacher and Student Outcomes in Fourth Grade

• In Event: Teacher Wellbeing and Young Children’s Classroom Experiences: Exploring Evidence from the Early Grades

Abstract

Introduction. Studies have established connections among teachers’ mental health, classroom processes, and student outcomes (McLean et al., 2018; Roberts et al., 2016; Sandilos et al., 2015). However, there is still much to be clarified about how exactly teachers’ mental health characteristics impact teachers’ and students’ classroom experiences and in which learning contexts these effects surface most pointedly. In particular, the field lacks an understanding of how teachers’ mental health impacts teachers’ and students’ feelings, beliefs, and behaviors in the classroom. Additionally, past work has suggested that teachers’ mental health may be more salient in certain content areas (McLean & Connor, 2015), indicating a need to investigate content-area-specific (CAS) effects of these characteristics.
Hypotheses. We investigate how fourth grade teachers’ depressive and anxious symptoms relate to teachers’ self-efficacy and students’ academic engagement in math, science, and English/language arts. We anticipate that teachers’ depressive and anxious symptoms will be associated with lower teaching efficacy and lower student academic engagement in math and science.
Study Population. Data were gathered in an ongoing investigation of elementary teachers’ and students’ experiences. Data have been collected on two cohorts, with 15 teachers and 200 students in Cohort 1 (2018/2019), and 18 teachers and 326 students in Cohort 2 (2019/2020). Only data on the first cohort were analyzed for this submission; pooled data from both cohorts will be utilized for final analyses. 87% of teachers were female and 73% were Caucasian. 50% of students were female, 70% were Hispanic/Latino(a), 16% biracial, 6% Caucasian, and 8% other ethnicities.
Methods. Teachers reported their depressive and anxious symptoms three times across the year using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CESD; Radloff, 1977) and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD, Spitzer et al., 2006). Teachers reported their CAS teaching efficacy in December using the Math Teaching Efficacy Beliefs Instrument (Enochs, Smith & Huinker, 2000), the Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs Instrument (Riggs & Enochs, 1990), and a version of these scales adapted for literacy. Students reported their CAS engagement in December using the Engagement vs. Disaffection Scale (Skinner et al., 2009) adapted for each content area. Multiple regression models were used to explore the influence of teachers’ depressive and anxious symptoms (averaged across time points) on teaching efficacy and students’ engagement in each content area. Separate models were run for each outcome, and all models controlled for student gender and teacher years of experience. Final conference analyses will utilize a multileveled approach.
Results. See Table 1 for correlations and Table 2 for regression model results. Analyses revealed significant negative associations between teachers’ depressive symptoms and their efficacy for teaching literacy and math, and positive associations between teachers’ anxious symptoms and their efficacy for teaching math and science. Additionally, analyses revealed negative associations between teachers’ depressive and anxious symptoms and students’ engagement in literacy and science. Results capture the far-reaching influence of teachers’ mental health characteristics on both teacher and student experiences (with some surprising patterns), and indicate that the effects of teachers’ mental health characteristics likely vary across content areas.

Authors

• Leigh McLean, Arizona State University
  Presenting Author

• Erik Ruzek, University of Virginia
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jayley Janssen, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author