Prevalence and predictors of psychological distress and common mental health concerns among Filipino university teachers amid the COVID‐19 pandemic

Abstract

AbstractThe current pandemic has drastically changed the academic landscape, causing distressing experiences among students and teachers. While there are increasing studies demonstrating the psychological experiences of students during the pandemic, only a few have examined the mental health conditions of university teachers. The present study sought to address this gap by investigating the prevalence of psychological distress and common mental health disorders and their pandemic‐related risk factors among Filipino university teachers. A total of 1110 university teachers self‐reported their psychological distress, generalized anxiety, and major depression symptoms through an online assessment. Findings of the study revealed the overall prevalence of psychological distress at 55.6%, and anxiety and depression were 17.0% and 28.4%, respectively. Younger teachers (i.e., aged ≤31 years old) and those who have less than a year of teaching experience are more likely to reach the cut‐off scores for all outcomes. Further, teachers who have experienced pandemic‐related adversities are highly vulnerable to psychological distress, generalized anxiety, and depression. These results offer important implications for creating psychosocial interventions that will help teachers manage their distresses amid the pandemic situation.