Stress in teaching professionals across Europe

Abstract

Teaching professionals' stress and burnout imply human capital costs and, consequently, economic costs. These costs justify the aim of this research: to offer an analysis of European teachers' health compared with other workers. To achieve this goal, a review of PsycoINFO, ERIC, Web of Science and Google Scholar databases from 2017 to 2019 was conducted. The study is complemented by an empirical analysis from the Sixth European Working Conditions Survey (n=27,756). Main findings show that teachers present higher levels of stress, anxiety, fatigue or sleeping problems when compared to other professions as a whole. Nevertheless, they are more satisfied at work. From an applied perspective, these results point to a need to develop specific actions to improve teachers' wellbeing.