Sociodemographic and work‑related differences in teachers’ attitude towards and perceived stress from emergency remote teaching during the COVID‑19 pandemic

Abstract

The aim was to investigate the attitude towards and perceived stress from emergency remote teaching (ERT) among teachers during the COVID‑19 pandemic. A Germany‑wide online survey was conducted among teachers from all school types in March 2021. Data from 31,089 teachers entered analysis. ANOVAs or Welch’s t‑tests with post‑hoc analyses were performed to determine sociodemographic and work‑related group differences in teachers’ attitude towards and perceived stress from ERT. The mean attitude towards ERT was 3.47 (± .84) out of 5 and the mean perceived stress was 5.03 (± .62) out of 6. Regarding the attitude towards ERT, we revealed significant differences for gender, age groups, number of children, occupational group, school management membership, and employment status (p < .05). Regarding perceived stress, significant differences were obtained for gender, age groups, and employment status (p < .05). A more positive attitude towards ERT seems to be associated with lower stress levels. Being female, a higher age, a higher number of children living in the own household as well as working full‑time might hinder an effective implementation of remote teaching in school settings in Germany. Policy‑makers and schools should think of strategies to improve the attitude towards and decrease perceived stress from remote teaching. This could include subgroup‑specific training on the use of digital media, adapted to the work environment.