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. 2021 Jun 11;18(12):6320.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph18126320.

A Complementary Intervention to Promote Wellbeing and Stress Management for Early Career Teachers

Stevie-Jae Hepburn  1 , Annemaree Carroll  1 , Louise McCuaig-Holcroft  2
Affiliations

A Complementary Intervention to Promote Wellbeing and Stress Management for Early Career Teachers

Stevie-Jae Hepburn et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

The educational climate and culture in our schools present a variety of environmental (contextual) factors that influence teacher wellbeing, job satisfaction, and work-related stress. The magnitude of contextual factors cannot be ignored, and directing attention towards the environment teachers face daily is essential. Primary (organisational)-level interventions are documented in organisational health and wellbeing literature; however, to provide teachers with stress management strategies for promoting wellbeing, attention must also be directed towards secondary (individual)-level interventions. The present study addressed the issue of stress management techniques for early career teachers (n = 24) and aimed to contribute to the research surrounding complementary interventions (CIs) for educators. The intervention was designed to include strategies that operated through cognitive and physiological mechanisms that regulated the stress response and increased awareness of behaviours, emotions, and reactivity. The self-report measures included perceived stress, attention awareness, subjective wellbeing, burnout, and job-related affective wellbeing. The results indicated a statistically significant decrease in perceived stress and increases in attention awareness and subjective wellbeing. The salivary cortisol levels (waking and resting) decreased from baseline to week 6, and the pre- and post-session salivary cortisol levels indicated an immediate decrease in cortisol for weeks 4 to 6.

Keywords: health; mindfulness; perceived stress; positive psychology; stress management; teacher stress; wellbeing; yoga.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Participant flow diagram.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Study design flow chart * QUAL—qualitative; * QUAN—quantitative.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Waking (CAR) salivary cortisol levels from baseline to week 6 of the program (n = 17).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Resting salivary cortisol levels from baseline to week six of the program (n = 17).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Pre- and post-session salivary cortisol samples (n = 17).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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