Insights on Mental Health at Work: Impact of Occupational Stress, Happiness and Work Motivation among the Kindergarten Teachers

Description

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19483168

Anaurene Roy¹ and Nisha Mary George² (Department of Psychology and Counselling, St Joseph’s University, Bengaluru, Karnataka¹ and Department of Counselling, Mount Carmel PU College, Bengaluru, Karnataka²)

This pilot study, conducted on Kindergarten teachers, aimed to investigate the impact of occupational stress, happiness, and work motivation. This ongoing study commenced in 2024, inspired by the theme as given by the World Health Organisation for World Mental Health Day 2024: Mental Health at Work (WHO, 2024). 63 kindergarten teachers from Bengaluru participated in the study and completed the Occupational Stress Index-Revised (Srivastava & Singh, 1981), the Subjective Happiness Scale (Lyubomirsky & Lepper, 1999), and the Work Motivation Questionnaire (Agarwal, 1988). A Pearson correlation analysis was adopted to determine the association between the aforementioned variables. The study’s findings highlighted that a few dimensions of occupational stress and happiness are inversely associated. Likewise, a few factors of work motivation and a few dimensions of occupational stress were inversely related. The present pilot study highlights the various challenges kindergarten teachers face, which have a profound impact on their motivation to work, happiness, and physical and mental health. Additionally, the recent pandemic has added to the mental turmoil of these teachers, as they had to adopt innovative methods to teach young children effectively during the unanticipated crisis. Overall, this study provides insights into a neglected aspect of teachers’ psychological well-being that is affected by occupational challenges.