Estresse e bem/mal-estar no contexto pandêmico: estudo com professores universitários

Abstract

The present thesis, divided into three separate studies, intends to analyze academic stress and well-being in university teachers. The first publication consists of a systematic review of psychometric instruments used to evaluate stress in the academic context published between 2010 and 2021 and identifies each instrument's validity and fidelity. The analysis following the PRISMA method pointed to 26 instruments described in 106 publications and all but one of them showed acceptable psychometric evidence. Additionally, a scarcity of publications on the teaching community was observed, since most studies focused on students. The second publication aimed to adapt the Academic Stress Scale (EEA-D in Portuguese) for teachers, evaluating its psychometric evidence. The study comprised two phases. The first phase had 210 participants averaging 42 years old (SD=9), from public and private institutions. These participants answered a preliminary version of the EEA-D and a sociodemographic questionnaire. The scale presented a unidimensional structure, with high indexes of confiability and satisfactory discrimination and difficulty parameters. In phase II, 257 participants averaging 45.41 years old (SD=11.02) were included. They received the final version of the EEA-D and the sociodemographic questionnaire. The results confirmed the structural model of the EEA-D in a single factor, with satisfactory construct validity and precision, thus proving itself suitable to measure academic stress in university teachers. The third publication aimed to investigate the predicting and correlated factors associated with stress and well-being in university teaching staff during the COVID-19 pandemics. Beyond this, the main stressors and coping strategies were also explored. This study included 257 teachers averaging 45.41 years old (SD=11.02). The participants answered the following instruments: the teacher's adaptation of the Academic Stress Scale (EEA-D); Perceived Stress Scale (PSS); Fear of COVID Scale (FCS); both State and Trait Anxiety Scales (STAI); Adult Dispositional Hope Scale (ADHS); and Satisfaction with Life Scale (LWLS), in addition to a sociodemographic questionnaire. The results indicated a moderate fear of COVID (M= 20,36; SD= 6,06), intermediate levels of trait anxiety (M= 46,89; SD= 7,43), and high levels of state anxiety (M= 50,12; SD=6,53). The group of teachers displayed a mean of 42.79 (SD=12.37) on the EEA-D scale, mean PSS of 46.89 (SD=7.43), mean LWLS of 25.35 (SD=6.43), and mean ADHS of 46.27 (SD=4.75), with all of them scoring higher than the median values of the respective scales. Beyond this, there was a positive correlation between parentality and dispositional hope (r= 0.137, p= 0.028) and life satisfaction (r= 0.247, p < 0.0001). Through the mediation model, it was possible to deduce that academic stress is directly linked to higher levels of anxiety (β= 0.1886; 95%CI = 0.11 a 0.26). The quantitative analysis established three content classes according to the participants' discourse, two of them were identified as stress triggers, namely "impact of the pandemics on the academic, family, financial and political scopes" (39.72% ECUs) and "emergency remote work" (35,51% ECUs). Conversely, the third class contained words that represented "strategies to coping with stress" (24.77% ECUs). In this sense, watching movies and TV series, leisure moments and good eating habits were the most common strategies. The results of each study are discussed individually and collectively in a general discussion at the end of the thesis. The goals proposed for each study were met, which allows a better understanding of the mental health paradigm for university teachers during the COVID-19 pandemics and sharing a way to measure academic stress in this group.