Elevated Educator Distress Persists Post-COVID

Hundreds of millions of school system employees (SSEs) educate the world’s youth. SSE distress is associated with higher turnover intentions and lower occupational effectiveness (i.e., poorer student academic and social-emotional outcomes). COVID-19 pandemic era studies evidenced elevated SSE distress worldwide, raising concerns that heightened SSE distress would compound the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on students. Strong associations between COVID-related anxieties and distress, however, suggested that SSE distress may naturally wane alongside pandemic impacts, potentially making policy changes unnecessary. Using data collected from 826 American SSEs in fall 2022 after life had returned to pre-pandemic routines, we examined (a) whether SSE distress remained elevated compared to the general population and (b) the relative contributions of occupational factors (perceptions of administrative support, family income) and COVID anxieties to SSE distress and occupational intentions. SSE rates of anxiety and depression were significantly higher than the general population (Odds Ratio 1.70-2.28) and perceptions of administrator appreciation but not coronavirus anxiety, controlling for anxiety and depressive symptoms, explained significant variance in burnout. Lower earning and White SSEs also tended to report greater distress, but unlike during the pandemic, higher distress was not associated with reduced intentions to continue in the profession.