Anxiety and depression: The world of teaching work and psychological exhaustion

Abstract

The worker's mental illness has become the object of studies nowadays, considering its negative effects in the world economy and in the interpersonal relations. Thereat, analyzed the anxiety/depression levels of 163 teachers who taught in public school of a city of Sao Paulo state. Beck Anxiety Inventory and Beck Depression Inventory were used to obtain the data, as well as questionnaires on sociodemographic and occupational satisfaction data. The results indicated that 58% of the participants were psychologically ill, 27% of whom presented symptoms consistent with anxiety and/or depression. It is concluded that teachers have become too mentally worn out, in an ephemeral social time, of imposition of short-term work dynamic, flexible, competitive and productivity. These aspects have made them mentally ill and discouraged them from establish affective bonds with their job and students.