Investigating tedium as a predictor of personality and techno-stress in school teachers during the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

Being a demanding profession, teaching involves the intrinsic components of stress, tiredness along with sensations of inner uneasiness. This directed the current investigation which focused on exploring the predictive nature of tedium in reference to the constructs of personality and techno-stress levels experienced by school teachers during the Covid-19 pandemic. Through a cross-sectional correlation design a non-probability purposive sample of 200 (including n = 92 men and n = 108 women) school teachers from private sector, with an age range of 22-57 years (M = 35.2, SD = 8.54) were recruited. Following the APA-mandated guidelines, the participants provided sociodemographic information and their responses to study variables on the Big-Five Personality Scale, Teacher’s Techno-stress Levels Defining Scale, and Burnout Measure. Findings suggested that tedium had a significant positive correlation with both neuroticism, and techno-stress, while a significant negative association with extraversion, openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness. Moreover, neuroticism and techno-stress were found to be the positive predictors of tedium, while conscientiousness and agreeableness negatively predicted tedium. Gender differences indicated that women teachers reported more tedium than their male counterparts. The results highlighted the need to seriously address the factors responsible for the decline in teachers’ efficiency and competence.