China News Service, Beijing, March 15 (Shao Meng) Currently, mental health education in primary and secondary schools is receiving increasing attention. However, as an important part of affecting the healthy growth of students, teachers’ mental health issues have received relatively little attention.
Yu Guoliang, chief expert of the interdisciplinary platform for mental health education at Renmin University of China, has been paying attention to teachers’ mental health issues for more than 20 years.
He and his research team conducted an investigation and study on the characteristics, influencing factors and development trends of teachers’ mental health problems in the 24 years from 1998 to 2022.
"One of my basic understandings is that only mentally healthy teachers can teach mentally healthy students. Understanding and grasping the characteristics, influencing factors and development trends of teachers' mental health problems is the prerequisite for improving teachers' mental health levels, and it is also the key to implementing ' Education is the basic project of building a powerful country." Yu Guoliang told Sino-Singapore Health.
Data map: Aerial photography of students posing in creative "smiling faces" on the playground of a primary school in Shangrao City, Jiangxi Province.
Photo by Ding Minghua
Teachers’ mental health problems are on the rise
Yu Guoliang introduced that the research team focused on six types of common mental health problems among teachers, including anxiety, depression, somatization problems, obsessive-compulsive problems, paranoid problems and hostility problems, and included a total of 1,813 relevant studies with a total number of 550,233 teachers.
After nearly a year of hard work, the expected research goals have been initially achieved.
"The survey results found that between 1998 and 2020, the mental health problems of teachers in my country as a whole showed a slow increase." Yu Guoliang said.
Specifically, obsessive-compulsive problems have always been more serious, and somatization problems fluctuate greatly; the mental health conditions of women, middle school and university teachers, and teachers in the eastern and northeastern regions have deteriorated more obviously; the number of students enrolled, the population, and the number of registered scientific and technological achievements Macroscopic factors such as teachers have a certain impact on teachers’ mental health problems.
He said that it is predicted that teachers’ mental health problems will continue to increase slowly in the future.
What factors affect teachers’ mental health?
Yu Guoliang pointed out that there are differences in teachers’ mental health problems and influencing factors at different stages.
The results of the study found that between 2000 and 2022, the mental health problems of preschool teachers showed a slow upward trend as a whole; the mental health of preschool teachers in urban, public and western regions deteriorated faster; the number of schools, enrollment numbers, students in school, and residents’ consumption levels Factors such as school fees and childcare fees have a more obvious prediction effect on the mental health problems of early childhood teachers.
Between 1998 and 2020, the mental health problems of primary school teachers generally showed a slight downward trend, and showed gender and regional differences; macro factors such as education, economy, socio-demographics and network technology have a certain impact on the mental health status of primary school teachers; based on Past changes predict that the mental health problems of primary school teachers may continue to remain at a high level in the next five years.
In addition, the mental health problems of middle school teachers are on the rise as a whole; the mental health problems of junior middle school teachers, head teachers and rural teachers are more serious and worsen over the years; the consumption level of residents, the number of schools, and the number of teachers can positively predict the mental health problems of middle school teachers; middle school teachers Teachers’ mental health problems will increase slightly in the coming period, and there are signs of further “deterioration”.
From 1999 to 2018, the mental health problems of university teachers showed an overall upward trend; the mental health of male, general university and third-category teachers in the western region deteriorated relatively quickly; the number of colleges and universities, the number of teachers, the number of students enrolled, the total dependency ratio and Political, economic and social factors such as the number of health and medical institutions have a more obvious prediction effect on the mental health problems of university teachers; in the future, the mental health problems of university teachers will show a stable and fluctuating development trend.
Data map: Children at Guipanyuan School in Qiaotouhe Town, Lianyuan City, Loudi, Hunan, show off their holiday greeting cards.
Photo by Zhang Yang Source: Visual China
Corresponding educational countermeasures need to be taken in a targeted manner
Yu Guoliang believes that it is necessary to take targeted educational countermeasures based on the characteristics, influencing factors and development trends of mental health problems among teachers and teacher groups in large, medium, small and kindergarten schools.
The mental health problems of early childhood teachers are closely related to social development. We can start from curbing the deterioration trend, cracking regional imbalances and exerting synergy.
For primary school teachers, the provision of mental health services should focus on the macro-influencing factors of mental health, and it is crucial to build a multi-dimensional and multi-level service system.
To improve the mental health problems of middle school teachers, we should grasp the trend and curb its deterioration. We should start from three levels: macro, meso and micro, emphasizing the overall situation, key breakthroughs and focusing on high-risk groups.
For university teachers, we should be policy-oriented, seize key issues at critical time points, curb the rising trend of their mental health problems, improve the quality of development from many aspects, and build a mental health safety network for the whole society.
"For the teacher group, determining teachers' mental health problem measurement tools is the basic preparation, building a normalized monitoring system for teachers' mental health problems is an inevitable choice, controlling the risk factors of teachers' mental health problems is the key guarantee, and curbing the worsening trend of teachers' mental health problems is Core actions." Yu Guoliang said.
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