Concern about the Spread of COVID-19 in Regular Basic Education Teachers When Returning to Face-to-Face Classes

Abstract

During the health emergency caused by COVID-19, a series of sensations such as fear, stress, and concern about contracting the virus were developed. Despite the fact that in recent months infection rates have been significantly reduced due to vaccination campaigns, the return of teachers to face-to-face classes established in Peru from April 2022 has increased once again the fear that contagion levels could grow. Therefore, the objective was to analyze the concern of regular basic education teachers about the spread of COVID-19 when returning to face-to-face classes. A quantitative investigation was carried out; the research design was observational and the type of study was descriptive cross-sectional. The sample was made up of 648 teachers who responded to the Scale of Concern for the Contagion of COVID-19, an instrument with adequate psychometric properties. The results show that 43.8% of teachers had moderate levels of concern about the spread of COVID-19, 38.7% had low levels, and 17.5% had high levels. Teachers reported most recurrent concerns about some risks in educational institutions and the fear of spreading COVID-19 to their relatives or people with whom they lived. On the other hand, it was found that some sociodemographic, occupational, and medical variables were significantly associated with this concern (p < 0.05). Then, it was concluded that teachers had moderate levels of concern about the spread of COVID-19 when returning to face-to-face classes.