Perceived Work Stress, Burnout and Psychological Distress in University Teachers during Online Teaching

Abstract

At the end of 2019, Covid-19 pandemic emerged as a world health issue. COVID-19 pandemic affected parents, students and teachers in many ways, one of which was shifting to online classes (Di Pietro et al., 2020). Numerous researches were conducted studying mental health of teachers during online teaching but the mediating role of burnout between perceived work stress and psychological distress has not been studied before. Therefore, the present research aims to contribute to the previous literature by testing this model of mediation in university teachers during online teaching. A total of 100 university teachers (M age=31.1, SD=6.72) were selected from public and private sector universities using purposive sampling technique. Work Stress Scale, Oldenburg Burnout Inventory and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 were used for assessment. Mediation analysis was done using SPSS 25. The findings revealed significant mediating role of exhaustion between perceived work stress and psychological distress which can help in understanding the contribution of exhaustion resulted by work stress as it leads to psychological distress in university teachers. The clinical implications include provision of a platform to address mental health issues of university faculty.