Overall, teacher and parent stress levels are lower than last year.
- More than a third of parents believe that having the support of a teacher is one of the most important factors for a child’s success.
- According to an Ifop survey for the Jean-Jaurès Foundation, published by Liberation in February 2021, 46% of teachers have already been in a situation of burnout in their career.
In two days, the children will find their way back to school. While some school children are happy to return to class, others are stressed. Parents and teachers are also divided. Back to school brings stress, and according to a survey conducted in the United States, teachers are more anxious than parents this year. Commissioned by the Office Depot company, it was produced by the OnePoll institute, and is relayed by the New York Post.
Less stress on parents
2,000 Americans responded to this survey: 1,000 were parents of students, and the other 1,000 were teachers (from kindergarten to high school). In general, the start of the 2022 school year seems less stressful than that of 2021: 44% of teachers and 55% of parents said so. And according to the parents, the children are also less anxious. They were 57% to declare that their offspring seemed less stressed.
But the observation is to be nuanced among teachers. 65% of them feel overwhelmed or even burnout. Compared to parents, they were twice as likely to report feeling the same level of anxiety as last year. Also called professional exhaustion syndrome, burnout is described by the High Health Authority as a “physical, emotional and mental exhaustion that results from prolonged investment in emotionally demanding work situations”. It can manifest as anxiety, muscle tension, hypersensitivity, sleep disturbances, etc. Sometimes the people concerned have addictive behaviors (tobacco, alcohol, etc.).
The epidemic, less worrying
If the results change from year to year, it is certainly because of the Covid-19. Last year, half of the parents placed the epidemic at the top of their concerns for the start of the school year, against only 26% of them this year. “Back to school last year was full of uncertainty as students, parents and teachers had to adapt to new learning environments“, Kevin Moffitt, vice president of Office Depot, tells Talker.
What is the situation in France?
The survey concerns only American professors and teachers. However, in France, the start of the new school year will probably be stressful, for children, parents, but especially for teachers. For now, there is a shortage of 3,000 teachers in the country for the 2022/2023 school year.
