Abstract
BackgroundThe teaching profession is highly stressed job. A high level of stress is associated with poor health outcomes, such as burnout and psychological distress. Therefore, teachers’ use of coping styles becomes imperative. However, relatively little is known about primary school teachers’ psychological distress, burnout, coping strategies, and associated factors in Nigeria. The study investigated psychological distress, burnout, coping strategies among primary schools, and associated factors in Nigeria.MethodsA total of 264 teachers aged 20–59 years participated in the study between May 2019 to October 2019. Questionnaires on psychological distress, burnout, coping strategies, and demographic profile form were used for data collection. Factors associated with psychological distress, burnout, and coping strategies were identified using t-test, univariate ANOVA, Pearson’s correlation, Chi-square test, and hierarchical linear regression analysis.ResultsOf 264 participants enrolled for the study, 253 responded, giving a response rate of 95.8%. The prevalence of psychological distress and burnout was 69.9% (176/253) and 36.0% (91/253), respectively. Sex (β = 0.158), a high level of emotional exhaustion (β = 0.193) and reduced personal accomplishment (β = 0.358), adoption of problem-focused strategies (β = 0.904), and dysfunctional strategies (β = 0.340) were positively associated with psychological distress. Age (β = − 0.338), academic qualification (β = − 0.210), and income level (β = − 0.146) were inversely associated with psychological distress, which together explained 51.5% of the total variance. Psychological distress (β = 0.275 vs. β = 0.404) was significantly associated with emotional exhaustion (EE) and reduced personal accomplishment (PA) and explained 11.4 and 24.2% of the variance in EE and reduced PA, respectively.ConclusionsThe high prevalence of psychological distress and burnout among teachers should receive urgent attention. Teachers’ training curricula should include developing interpersonal skills, stress management abilities, and resilience to equip them for the job. Also, teacher training curricula should integrate mental health promotion interventions.
Highlights
The teaching profession is highly stressed job
Burnout refers to a prolonged response to chronic physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion at work, which is characterized by emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (DEP), and reduced personal accomplishment (PA) or professional efficacy (PE) [7, 8]
This study found that many teachers suffered from psychological distress and a high proportion of teachers had burnout symptoms
Summary
The teaching profession is highly stressed job. A high level of stress is associated with poor health outcomes, such as burnout and psychological distress. Relatively little is known about primary school teachers’ psychological distress, burnout, coping strategies, and associated factors in Nigeria. The study investigated psychological distress, burnout, coping strategies among primary schools, and associated factors in Nigeria. The teaching profession is highly stressful [1, 2], and it is associated with poor health outcomes [2, 3]. Health-related outcomes include the involvement of physical illness and mental problems, musculoskeletal pain, cardiovascular diseases, depression, and anxiety [1, 7,8,9,10,11,12]
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