Teachers were more anxious than health care workers -- or anyone else -- during the first year of the pandemic, according to a newly published study, reports Kevin Mahnken on The 74.
“Our thought was that healthcare workers battling this virus on the front lines would clearly have the highest levels of distress,” said Joseph Kush, a James Madison psychology professor who co-authored the paper. “And they were very high, but we found that teachers were actually quite a bit higher.”
By far, teachers had the highest odds of reporting anxiety — 40 percent higher than healthcare workers, 20 percent higher than office workers, and 30 percent higher than members of the “other” category.”
. . . “Education was unique in that it grappled, even within districts, about whether teachers were going to work in-person from week to week,” said Kush. “That change, and the uncertainty in that, clearly brings this spike in anxiety.”
Not surprisingly, remote teachers were likely to feel depressed and isolated.
Female teachers were 70 percent more likely than their male colleagues to say they felt anxiety, and most teachers are women. But most health-care workers also are women, said Kush.