The Impact of COVID-19 on Emotional Health and Well-Being in School Personnel

Overview: This study surveyed school personnel's pandemic experiences. Major findings include that African American school personnel had higher emotional health and well-being associated with better physical health, economic and employment stability, and social activities indicating higher resilience. Implications for social work education and further research are discussed.Proposal text: Background and Purpose
School personnel, including teachers, administrators, staff, resource officers, custodians, lunch aids, bus drivers, nurses, and social workers, have had to adjust to multiple changes due to COVID-19. Personnel reported experiencing more work-related stress in the 2020-2021 school year compared to previous years (Steiner, 2021). COVID-19 exacerbated work-related stress and racial disparities. African Americans were disproportionately affected by the pandemic in comparison to their white counterparts (Garcia et al., 2021). Understanding racial disparities and social determinants of health are important to the education of social workers as we work to dismantle structures of oppression. The purpose of this study was to assess differences in pandemic experience between white and black school personnel. Research questions include 1) Has the pandemic experience differed for black and white school personnel? 2) What factors are associated with emotional health and well-being in school personnel?
Methods
An exploratory, cross-sectional study of school personnel analyzed online survey data collected in a Midwestern state during August 2020. Participants self-reported challenges experienced due to COVID-19 using the Epidemic-Pandemic Impact Inventory (EPII) (Grasso, Briggs-Gowan, Ford, & Carter, 2020). The emotional health and well-being outcome was an additive scale of eight yes/ no items from the EPII emotional health sub-scale. Predictor variables also from EPII sub-scale include physical health (8-items), social activities (10-items), stable employment (12-items), and economic stability (5-items). All items were recoded in a positive direction. Race was categorized as white (1) or African American (0). Multiple regression variables were selected based on significant racial differences within the subscales using an independent sample t-test. The analysis used SPSS 28.
Results
The sample comprised, 16.2% African American, and 73% white personnel the majority of whom were female (83%), had a college degree (80%), and had a mean age of 45 years. Multiple linear regression assessed factors related to emotional health and well-being (Nf1100). Multiple linear regression (F(6, 1093)= 180.625, p < .001) revealed that positive emotional health and well-being was associated with being African American (β =-.091, p