Mental distress of public school teachers

ABSTRACT

A cross-sectional study of mental suffering was carried out with 1.021 professors of the public education in Paraná. The Self-Report Questionnaire was utilized for minor psychic disorders, Beck's anxiety and depression inventories, and a sociodemographic and self-reported morbidity questionnaire. The Chi-square, Exact of Fischer and the Kruskal-Wallis tests were used in the analysis of the obtained data. Minor psychic disorders were found in 75%, depression in 44% and anxiety in 70% of the people observed in the present study, with a significant association (p<0,05) of this symptoms with the female sex, other illness, the fact of taking work home and working with elementary school. Mental distress was present in a large portion of the sample studied, presenting relation with the working conditions.

KEYWORDS
Occupational health; Stress psychological; Teachers; Working conditions; Education