Mental health and mental workload in Chilean educational establishment workers in the context of COVID-19

Abstract

The current COVID-19 pandemic has generated a great impact on countries and people, modifying mainly labor and educational processes and actions. In the educational field, many countries have implemented teleworking and tele-education, which has generated stressful situations and work overload due to the transfer and modification of traditional tasks. This study analyzes the mental health conditions and the perception of mental workload in 311 civil officials, teachers and non-teachers, from 9 Chilean establishments, 246 women and 65 men. Two instruments were applied, the Depression-Anxiety-Stress Scale (DASS 21) and the Subjective Mental Workload Scale (ESCAM), analyzing the data in a descriptive and correlational way. The results show, regarding mental health, average levels in stress, as well as low in depression and anxiety; while in mental workload a moderately high perception is observed in the dimensions of cognitive demand, characteristics of the task and organization of time, while a medium perception is observed in the dimensions of work rhythm and consequences for health; furthermore, positive, significant and moderately high correlations were found between the health consequences dimension of the mental workload scale and the dimensions of stress, depression and anxiety; in addition to significant differences between groups according to gender and work carried out. It is concluded that the mandatory modifications due to the pandemic have affected officials in their mental health and the perception of the burden of their activities, increasing negative stress.