Mental Health of Higher Education Teachers at Work
Integrative literature review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.48492/servir0212.39102Keywords:
Mental health, Teachers, University education, Occupational Stress, Work Performance, Workplace, Mental Disorders, Burnout PsychologicalAbstract
Introduction: Occupational stress occurs due to poor working conditions, negatively affecting the mental health, skills and performance of higher education teachers. It has a significant effect on their quality of life, health and job satisfaction.
Objective/s: To investigate the factors that interfere with the mental health of higher education teachers at work.
Methods: An integrative literature review was carried out, with research on electronic platforms - Pubmed®Medline, Web of Science and Scientific Open Access Repositories of Portugal, including studies published between 2017 and 2022. The corpus of the review consists of 5 studies.
Results: It was found that these studies reveal that these teachers have moderate to high levels of occupational stress and burnout. Work overload, pressures inherent to professional practice, little possibility of career success, remuneration issues and working conditions are factors that lead to a decline in mental health. Studies reveal negative effects on mental health, at the physical (deterioration of physical health), psychological (anxiety, stress and depression) and social (decreased leisure time and social life) levels. Teachers under stress show depressive symptoms, anxiety, low satisfaction with life. Consequently, they have high levels of overload leading to a decrease in quality of life with an impact on physical and mental health.
Conclusion: Understanding/knowledge of the factors that interfere with the mental health of teachers is essential, making it possible to adapt different and specialized practices and nursing care in the promotion of mental health, through appropriate psychotherapeutic interventions for teachers, enhancing their mental health.
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