Occupational health intervention for work-life balance and burnout management among teachers in rural communities

The effectiveness of a rational-emotive intervention on teachers' unconditional self-acceptance, perfectionism, and pupil control ideology

Introduction

The present research aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) intervention on in-service teachers.

Methods

A quasi-experimental 2-group (intervention vs. control) × 3-time (pre, post-test, follow-up) design was applied to explore to what extent the REBT interventions help teachers increase their level of unconditional self-acceptance as the primary outcome and decrease their perfectionism tendencies and pupil control ideology as secondary outcomes. The sample consisted of 100 in-service teachers assigned to either the intervention group (n = 50) or the control group (n = 50). The experimental group received a 6-week intervention program. Every session was held weekly and lasted 90-120 min. The Unconditional Self-Acceptance Questionnaire (USAQ), Pupil Control Ideology Scale (PCI), and Perfectionism Inventory Scale (PI) were used to collect data. This study used a mixed model ANOVA 2 × 3 for data analysis.

Results

The results indicated that in the experimental group, there was a statistically significant increase in unconditional self-acceptance level from pre-test to post-test, which remains significant at the 6-month follow-up. Likewise, there were no statistically significant differences in unconditional self-acceptance levels between the post-test and 6-month follow-up in the intervention group.

Discussion

These findings prove that REBT interventions are effective in increasing teachers' unconditional self-acceptance.

Investigating the Effect of Cognitive-Behavioral, Mindful-Based, Emotional-Based Intervention and Professional Training on Teachers' Job Burnout: A Meta-Analysis

Teachers are more likely to experience occupational burnout; intervention for their job burnout has been paid more and more attention by the academic community. However, there is not enough evidence to support the interventions' effect. This study adopts the meta-analysis method and makes a statistical analysis of the interventions' effect on teachers' job burnout based on 29 papers in the literature of randomized controlled experiments. It mainly presents the basic external characteristics of the research literature; besides, based on the results of software CMA.V3, this paper also analysed the overall intervention effect and the separate effect of four types of intervention, namely, cognitive-behavioral interventions (CBI), mindfulness-based interventions (MBI), professional training (PT), and emotional-based intervention (EBI). The results showed that CBI had the best effect, and mindfulness-based intervention had the second-best effect. Professional training also showed a good intervention effect, while the intervention effect of emotional-based intervention remains to be verified. In addition, it was found that only the effect of cognitive-behavioral intervention (CBI) was significant and had a strong effect (g = 0.876, 95% CI-1.06, 2.814, p < 0.05) when considering their effects on emotional exhaustion, while the other three interventions had no significant effect. The discussion section is provided last.

Burnout and depression: A cross sectional study among health care workers providing HIV care during the COVID-19 pandemic in Malawi

Health care workers (HCWs) in eastern Africa experience high levels of burnout and depression, and this may be exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic due to anxiety and increased work pressure. We assessed the prevalence of burnout, depression and associated factors among Malawian HCWs who provided HIV care during the COVID-19 pandemic. From April-May 2021, between the second and third COVID-19 waves in Malawi, we randomly selected HCWs from 32 purposively selected PEPFAR/USAID-supported health facilities for a cross-sectional survey. We screened for depression using the World Health Organization Self Report Questionnaire (positive screen: score≥8) and for burnout using the Maslach Burnout Inventory tool, (positive screen: moderate-high Emotional Exhaustion and/or moderate-high Depersonalization, and/or low-moderate Personal Accomplishment scores). Logistic regression models were used to evaluate factors associated with depression and burnout. We enrolled 435 HCWs, median age 32 years (IQR 28-38), 54% male, 34% were clinical cadres and 66% lay cadres. Of those surveyed, 28% screened positive for depression, 29% for burnout and 13% for both. In analyses that controlled for age, district, and residence (rural/urban), we found that screening positive for depression was associated with expecting to be infected with COVID-19 in the next 12 months (aOR 2.7, 95%CI 1.3-5.5), and previously having a COVID-19 infection (aOR 2.58, 95CI 1.4-5.0). Screening positive for burnout was associated with being in the clinical cadre (aOR 1.86; 95% CI: 1.2-3.0) and having a positive depression screen (aOR 3.2; 95% CI: 1.9-5.4). Reports of symptoms consistent with burnout and depression were common among Malawian HCWs providing HIV care but prevalence was not higher than in surveys before the COVID-19 pandemic. Regular screening for burnout and depression should be encouraged, given the potential for adverse HCW health outcomes and reduced work performance. Feasible interventions for burnout and depression among HCWs in our setting need to be introduced urgently.

Occupational health coaching for job stress management among technical college teachers: Implications for educational administrators

BACKGROUND

The need for stress management strategies has been empirically investigated and supported considering demands in workplaces. However, some people in public offices do not seem to have been exposed to occupational health strategies that could reduce the adverse impacts of stress on job productivity and quality of life. Consequently, they become susceptible to mental health disturbances requiring the attention of occupational therapists. Given this, we studied the impact of occupational health coaching for job stress management among technical college teachers.

METHODS

Using a randomized control design study, 90 technical college teachers were screened and ready to participate. The eligible teachers were included and assigned to intervention and control groups. An occupational stress index was given to the participants before, immediately after, and 2 months after the delivery of occupational coaching program by career counselors while the comparison group received no intervention. Data collected were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance analysis.

RESULTS

The results showed a significant improvement in the management of job stress after receiving rational emotive occupational health coaching. According to the multivariate analysis of variance analysis, there were between-group differences immediately after the intervention and 3 months later. As a result, the study suggested that career counselors and school management systems should incorporate rational-emotive behavioral therapy into workforce and workplace programs.