Teachers' Occupational Stress and Perceived Support in Finland and Estonia During the COVID-19 Lockdown
Sanni Pöysä1*
Anna-Liisa Jõgi2
Kairit Tammets3
Eve Eisenschmidt2
Eija Pakarinen1, 4
Marja-Kristiina Lerkkanen1, 4
- 1University of Jyväskylä, Finland
- 2School of Educational Sciences, Tallinn University, Estonia
- 3School of Digital Technologies, Tallinn University, Estonia
- 4Norwegian Centre for Learning Environment and Behavioural Research in Education, University of Stavanger, Norway
This study examined teachers’ experiences of occupational stress in Finland and Estonia during the COVID-19 lockdown, and whether their stress would be related to their experiences of support from colleagues and leaders. The participants were total of 1,319 teachers that were teaching grades 1-6 in spring 2020. The data were analyzed using regression analyses with interaction terms. The results showed that the teachers in Finland and Estonia experienced stress during the lockdown, and that teachers’ stress was higher in the Finnish sample than in the Estonian sample. The findings of this study suggest that support gained from colleagues or leaders seems to be important when aiming to reduce teachers’ occupational stress in both countries.
Keywords: Occupational stress, support from colleagues, support from leaders, COVID-19 pandemic, teachers
Received: 01 Feb 2023;
Accepted: 25 Sep 2023.
Copyright: © 2023 Pöysä, Jõgi, Tammets, Eisenschmidt, Pakarinen and Lerkkanen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Dr. Sanni Pöysä, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland