The association between workload and personal well-being among school teachers in the Republic of Moldova

Abstract

Introduction. The correlation between the excessive demands of teaching tasks and the misalignment between perceived requirements, expended effort, and the received rewards can significantly impact the overall satisfaction, engagement, and motivation levels of the teaching staff. The aim of this study was to identify and characterize the impact of teachers' overwork on their well-being. The idea was to understand teachers' perceptions of their profession, associated risks, and implications for well-being.

Material and methods. A descriptive study incorporating prospective aspects was conducted. A comprehensive questionnaire, comprising 11 sections, was administered to a sample of 750 teachers. These sections encompass general information, academic workload (including workload management, teaching and research responsibilities, and the academic atmosphere), occupational environment conditions, and the respondents' health status.

Results. More than 82.1±12.2% characterize their workplace as comfortable, with 88.5±15.4% experiencing a normal microclimate temperature, and 56.7±9.7% reporting no drafts. The overall impact of academic workload on general health status was found to be statistically significant (β=0.23, t=4.76; p<.001). Likewise, a differentiation in the intensity of the correlation relationship was observed depending on the profile of the teachers. There was a more intense effect of academic overload on teachers with a real profile (β=0.79; p<0.001) compared to those with a humanistic profile (β=0.47; p<0.05). The impact of academic workload was identified as a predictor of defective relationships with family members and defective relations with colleagues and the school administration (β=0.21, t=3.6; p<0.05), as well as burnout (β=0.55, t=7.69; p<.001), and occupational stress (β=0.32, t=4.32; p<.001). In addition to the previously mentioned factors, protective elements against academic overload were also identified. These factors exhibited a negative correlation with the cumulative overload score. For example, length of service (β=-0.85; p<.001) and the number of lessons less than 30 hours per week (β=-0.15; p<.05). Furthermore, this study observed no significant relationship between the degree of management of the didactic workload of teachers and their well-being, along with attitudes towards teaching, professional satisfaction, self-efficacy, autonomy support, commitment, work motivation, and personal well-being of teachers, as indicated by the corresponding significant values of 0.256, 0.394, 0.277, 0.425, 0.989, and 0.844.

Conclusions. Based on the findings of the study, the researchers draw the following conclusion: Teachers can still effectively perform their duties and responsibilities as professionals even in the presence of a workload. The analysis revealed that a perception of elevated bureaucratic academic workload was a predictor of personal and social health issues among teachers. The perception of workload, particularly related to teaching and academic workload, was associated with teachers' personal and social well-being.

Notă: The study was carried out with the support of the Moldovan-Turkish bilateral research and innovation project 22.80013.8007.1TR "Collaborative research and capacity building in occupational health and safety".