The Effect of Mindfulness-based Cognitive Behavior Therapy on Occupational Stress Management Among Community Secondary School Teachers in Kathmandu

Background

Stress is the feeling of being overwhelmed or unable to cope with mental or emotional pressure which can happen together with mental health problems, such as depression. In 2019, depressive disorders were the sixth leading contributor to disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) among 25-49-year-olds. Occupational stress is the most common form of stress, and the degree of stress varies among different occupations. A study from the UK found that teaching was one of the most stressful occupations, because of its direct human-oriented nature. Likewise, a follow-up study in West England reported a higher level of psychological distress among a cohort of teachers than among comparable professionals from the general population.

Potential stressors for teachers are low job support, student apathy, overcrowded and noisy working environments, excessive paperwork, low wages, unsupportive parents, and changing curricula. Lacking management of chronic workplace stress may result in Burnout syndrome. Prolonged stress becomes permanent, over time, because it is hard to recover and as a result, the individual faces chronic fatigue, dementia, musculoskeletal problems, cardiovascular disease, and professional burnout syndrome. The range of job stress may vary from job to job and profession to profession. Largo-Wight, Moore, and Barr have shown some different roots of job stress pertaining to physical or biological and psychological or behavioral in nature. Notwithstanding, exploring the level of job stress in the working population, and their lifestyle modification practices to reduce the stress level have a significant implication. The large number of schoolteachers teaching at different levels may have multifaceted stresses due to various reasons, such as less pay, high job demands, job insecurity, lack of professional opportunity, and safety. An earlier study by Kumar et. al. stated that occupational stress is increasingly common in the teaching profession due to increased occupational complexities and economic pressure on individuals. The reason behind the increased distress among the teachers is the result of the failure of the school to meet the social needs and job demands of the teachers.

With most adults spending around half of their waking hours at work, the workplace is therefore an important setting to promote health and well-being. Various national and international bodies (e.g. ILO, WHO) are responsible for ensuring the health and safety of employees, with a focus on identifying physical, chemical, and biological hazards in the workplace. Increasingly, attention is also being paid to the psychosocial work environment, with a major focus on work stress. Therefore, promoting awareness of the link between stress and health among both employers and workers is an important component of workplace health promotion. Several interventions are tested to help teachers to reduce their stress levels and to improve their well-being and student outcomes at organizational and individual levels. Organizational-level interventions are directed at changing the organization's culture and work practices, whereas individual-level interventions are the most common approaches that include psychological relaxation or meditation, cognitive behavioral techniques to improve active coping skills, and lifestyle modification activities. Evidence shows that individual-level intervention improves teachers' health and well-being. In this regard, a study carried out by Naghieh et al. concluded that organizational interventions led to improvements in teacher well-being and retention rates. However, these lifestyle modification knowledge and practices have not been well explored among community-level schoolteachers. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the impact of lifestyle modification intervention on occupational stress management among community-level schoolteachers. This individual-level intervention may affect teachers' own health behaviors, inspire others to review their own lifestyle activities, and support in developing a positive impact on community health practices.

Research aims and objectives