The psychosocial work environment and mental health of teachers: a comparative study between the United Kingdom and Hong Kong

Int Arch Occup Environ Health (2013) 86:657666 DOI 10.1007/s00420-012-0799-8

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

The psychosocial work environment and mental healthof teachers: a comparative study between the United Kingdom and Hong Kong

Jessica Janice Tang Stavroula Leka

Sara MacLennan

Received: 12 January 2012 / Accepted: 15 July 2012 / Published online: 27 July 2012 Springer-Verlag 2012

AbstractPurpose There is limited research on teachers psychosocial work environment and mental health, and most has been conducted in predominantly Western countries that share a number of important common characteristics that distinguish them from countries in many other regions of the world. Within the framework of the effortreward imbalance (ERI) theoretical model, the relationship between the psychosocial work environment and mental health of teachers in the United Kingdom (UK) and Hong Kong (HK) was investigated.

Methods Full-time qualied teachers from both the UK and HK (N = 259) participated in the research. They were asked to ll in a set of questionnaires that measured their perceived stress, mental health, psychosocial work environment and demographic information.

Results Perceived stress was found to predict teachers mental health. Overcommitment, the intrinsic component of the ERI model, predicted mental health among HK teachers. There were signicant differences in the psychosocial variables between UK and HK teachers. Conclusion The results showed support for the ERI model and in particular for the relationship between stress and mental health and demonstrated the role of overcommitment in the teaching profession. Some implications are

discussed for combating cultural differences in managing the psychosocial work environment of teachers.

Keywords Stress Mental health

Professional commitment Teachers

Psychosocial work environment

Introduction

Teachers occupational mental health problems currently represent a priority both in the United Kingdom (UK) and internationally. Studies indicate that workers mental health status varies according to their psychosocial work environment as well as their occupations; undeniably not all occupations are under the same risk of mental health problems. A review of the international literature and secondary analysis of the ONS Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (Stansfeld et al. 1999, 2003) showed that certain occupations are at greater risk of mental health problems than others, while British national surveys suggest that teachers have a higher incidence of work-related mental illness. Over the past decades, many studies conducted internationally have highlighted that teaching has to be...