Page 158 - Petelin, Ana. 2020. Ed. Zdravje delovno aktivne populacije / Health of the Working-Age Population. Proceedings. Koper: University of Primorska Press.
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avje delovno aktivne populacije | health of the working-age population 156 the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Teachers’ work is in general associated with
increased level of stress, especially when teachers are exposed to many changes
in the work process (De Simone et al., 2016). Research shows that teachers’ per-
ceived stress is consistently correlated with their wellbeing. Further, teachers’
perceptions of stress and sense of wellbeing are central to their ability to teach
well (MacIntyre et al., 2019).

The aim of this research was to assess the perceived level of current and
general stress in classroom teachers during the period of distance teaching due
to COVID-19, their psychological wellbeing, and the level of satisfaction with
their work.

Methods
Participants and procedure
An invitation to an online questionnaire was sent to primary school teach-
ers via social network groups (i.e., Facebook, Twitter) at the beginning of sixth
week of online teaching, which represented the middle of the work-at-home pe-
riod for teachers in Slovenia during COVID-19 epidemics. The online question-
naire was developed on previous qualitative data inquiry (i.e. interviews with
several teachers) and included: demographic questions, information about the
current level of perceived stress during distance online teaching, general stress
during previous periods of teaching, current distress and psychological well-
being markers, and satisfaction with life and work. Ninety-one Slovene female
teachers completed an online questionnaire. The mean age of participants was
40.90 years (SD = 19.26) and the participants had a mean of 13.66 years of teach-
ing experience (SD = 9.85).

Measures
We used the following measures: (1) Demographic and background informa-
tion: participants’ age, seniority in primary school teaching, the grade they
currently teach, and the number of students they currently have in their class;
(2) Perceived psychological stress: we used single-item measures of stress to
capture the extent to which participants reported experiencing stress during
the period of distance learning (i.e., current stress) as well as their typical level
of stress during traditional classroom teaching (i.e., general stress); (3) Current
distress symptoms: using scales that ranged from 1 (not at all) to 4 (very much),
the participants reported the extent to which they were experiencing differ-
ent psychological distress symptoms; (4) Work satisfaction: using a scale that
ranged from 1 (not at all) to 5 (very much), the participants indicated the extent
of their satisfaction with their current work and private life.
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