Anxiety symptoms, psychological distress, and optimism in school staff: Testing associations with stressors and coping during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the factors associated with mental health outcomes in school staff during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Adapting the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping, we tested whether school staff who lived with others and adopted healthier behaviours (e.g., diet, physical activity) would be more likely to manage pandemic stressors, altering mental health outcomes. The current study included 2,343 school staff (60% teachers) from the greater Vancouver area in British Columbia, Canada, who completed the online questionnaire between February 3 and June 18, 2021 as part of a longitudinal study of COVID-19 impacts on schools. Results showed that participants’ perceived risk of getting COVID-19 was associated with poorer mental health among both male and female school staff. Furthermore, when perceived risk of COVID-19 was low, living with others reduced the negative impact of pandemic stressors on anxiety symptoms and dispositional optimism among female school staff. We detected no influence of health behaviours on the associations between stressors and mental health. Favorable health behaviours were also associated with lower anxiety and psychological distress among female school staff. These findings underlie the importance of proactive prevention and intervention strategies to address the mental health of school staff.