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2 Teachers’ Stress, Anxiety and Resilience

Stress is an everyday fact as everyone experiences stress at some point in their

lives. Being stressed means feeling a high level of stress, feeling depressed, being in a

situation where it is very difficult to control situations such as health crises or

illnesses that directly affect the person's overall well-being. In all cases, stress is the

result of the relationship between the individual and their environment (Martínez &

Díaz, 2007). People, especially university professors, need to learn how to avoid and

manage stress in times of pandemics and health crises. Those who do not compromise

their health and peace of mind; On the other hand, those who know and manage

stressful situations with appropriate measures and deal with them better can enjoy a

better lifestyle even in times of crisis (Ramírez et al., 2019; Villalobos et al., 2018) .

In the words of Melgosa (1995), stress is characterized as a subjective reaction to

events, i.e. as a state of inner tension. Because of the changes that stress produces in

humans, stress is understood as: "a series of physiological and psychological

responses to which the body is subjected when subjected to heavy exertion" (p. 19).

Stress arises when a person recognizes a threatening situation, the severity of which in

many cases exceeds their personal resources; from there, two processes are proposed:

the cognitive appreciation of the event and the process of adaptation or resistance.

First, the individual analyzes the benefit or harm of the situation; second, he reflects

and evaluates what he can or cannot do to cope with the situation, to avoid harm or to

improve his perspective.

Concerns exist regarding the amount of stress that teachers endure at work.

Stress has negative impacts on teachers personally, as well as on their students and the

learning environment (Travers & Cooper, 1996). Student academic and behavioral

results can suffer as a result of teacher stress, which is linked to absenteeism,

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substitute teaching, and early retirement. The seriousness and scope of these issues

highlight the need for initiatives to lessen teacher stress. A requirements analysis is a

key initial step in getting involved in program creation (Nardi, 2003).

Anxiety, another type of analysis in this study, refers to an emotional state that

people experience. According to Ayuso (1988), distress is defined as: "...a complex,

diffuse, and uncomfortable feeling that evokes psychological and organic

(physiological) responses to a person who feels threatened in some way" (cited in

Sierra, Ortega, and Zubeidat) , 2003). It denotes a strong level of agitation brought on

by bad circumstances, looming dangers, or mishaps. Based on the aforementioned

factors, fear can be adaptive and helpful. It is a common reaction in daily life and a

crucial part of analysis. The social and family context is impacted by this emotional

state's attitudes and behaviours. Gray (1982) and Sandin (1990), among others, saw

fear as a characteristic and an emotional state from a psychological standpoint.

From the point of view of characteristics, they relate to the state of the

individual, to the personality that reacts to dangerous and threatening situations; and

from the perspective of emotional states, how people behave in response to certain

stimuli. , whether internal or external, the ability to respond to certain According to

the approach of Sierra et al. (2003), anxiety refers to “a state of excitement and

restlessness characterized by the anticipation of danger, the preponderance of

psychological symptoms and a feeling is marked of disaster or impending danger; it

means that a combination of cognitive and physical symptoms ...the individual tries to

find a solution to the danger” (p. 67)

Anxiety is a manifestation of psychological/emotional factors, including

general agitation, depression, tension, anxiety and depression and loss of self-

confidence (Cooper & Travers, 1996; Calhoun & Jenkins, 1991). A lack of food,

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frequent smoking, alcohol or drug misuse, irritability with others, lack of productivity,

absenteeism, and withdrawal from school are a few behavioral indications (Harney,

2008; Jenkins and Calhoun, 1991; Travers and Cooper, 1996). According to Forman's

(1982) study, urban college instructors who took part in a cognitive-behavioral stress

management course reported less stress had significantly lower self-reported levels of

stress and anxiety than the no-treatment control group after completing an 18-hour

exercise program. Six weeks after the exercise program, it was also discovered that

tension and anxiety had decreased (Forman 1982). Overall, it has been demonstrated

that teacher-led stress management programs that contain elements that target

cognitive control are most successful (Forman, 1990). Forman (1981) discovered that

school psychologists who took part in training intended to teach them how to put

teacher stress management programs into action had lower self-reported anxiety and

higher work satisfaction after the training. Thus, putting stress management programs

into place in schools will give school psychologists their own coping mechanisms and

lessen teacher stress.

The ability to develop resilience processes that allow us to overcome times of

crisis is important; it strengthens a range of skills and capacities that help us to

overcome such situations. The word elasticity is of Latin origin. From the word

elastic, meaning to return, to stress, to rebound. As a result, the concept was

integrated relatively late into the social sciences (including psychology) and health

sciences. In the words of D'Alessio (2015), resilience is defined as “the ability to

overcome adversity, adapt, recover and bear significant capacity and pressure to

succeed” (p. 7). Stress, anxiety and resilience issues are common in academia and

often result in lower work performance. However, these feelings are not typical or

unique to professionals working in science. The hustle and bustle, competition, and

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social and technological changes that are exacerbating this health crisis and pandemic

are threatening the psychological balance of many university professors.

Particularly in nations where the teaching profession has seen significant

resignation rates, resilience in the field of education has become an important subject

of inquiry (Scheopner, 2010; Hong, 2012). There are several studies conducted

globally that assess the levels, risk, and protective variables of teachers' resilience,

with the quantity and type of protective factors that the relevant instruments draw

from changing. Greek literature, in comparison, is quite scarce, and the majority of

research emphasizes children's and teenagers' resilience (Nearchou et al., 2013; Motti-

Stefanidi et al., 2008; Leontopoulou, 2013; Kourkoutas et al., 2014). Studies on

protective variables that influence teachers' levels of resilience have just recently been

the focus (Froehlich-Gildhoff et al., 2012; Botou et al., 2017). The researcher has

created the current study in order to close this gap in knowledge by attempting to

quantify the protective characteristics of resilience in Greek teachers. In this study, an

integrated new scale has been created to measure the internal and external protective

aspects of teachers' resilience by combining the subscales of the aforementioned

instruments that fit the best.

Undoubtedly, feelings of anxiety and stress increase during a crisis. In many

situations, these emotions increase people's psychological and physical vulnerability,

but some people adopt positive behaviors to deal with difficult situations despite

having experienced certain crisis situations. These people are considered resilient.

Resilient people use their neuropsychological skills and resources positively to cope

with crises; they have a strong motivation to succeed. In this regard, the resilience of

higher education and, fundamentally, the resilience of university teachers is an

important factor in the analysis. In this context, Rockwell (2012) mentioned;

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“Teaching is a delicate skill that consists of many elements, such as conduct follow-

up activities that make academic success social goals and objectives” (p. 451).

The current research is attempted to determine if teachers’ stress and anxiety

have any relationship with their resilience strategies in universities and whether they

are in need to participate further in a stress and anxiety reduction resilience program

to address work-related stress and anxiety. This study has addressed the teacher’s job

security and benefits, teacher/administration relations, teacher/teacher relations,

student behavior, time management, intrapersonal conflicts, physical symptoms of

stress, psychological/emotional symptoms and stress management techniques under

the three main dimensions of teachers’ stress, anxiety and resilience.