An investigation on the mental health of teachers in remote mountain areas

Xiaolan LUO

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:

The mental health of primary school teachers who have been working in remote mountain areas for a long time can be affected by the environment and conditions there.

OBJECTIVE:

To analyze the present mental health of mountain-area teachers to seek countermeasures of raising their mental health level.

DESIGN:

An investigation of random sampling questionnaires was carried out with the primary school teachers in remote mountain areas as observational subjects.

SETTING:

Department of Education, Xinzhou Teachers' Training Institute.

PARTICIPANTS:

From December 2003 to February 2004, 182 teachers who were randomly sampled from the 28 most remote mountain schools selected from seven counties and cities such as Wutai, Shenchi and Hequ in Shanxi Province, were selected as investigation subjects.

METHODS:

The self-assessed/measured symptom scale was used to assess the mental health of mountain area teachers. The scale was made up of 90 items, including 9 factors such as somatic disorder, obsessive disorder, interpersonal sensitivity, anxiety, depression, hostility, horror, paranoia,and psychoticism. There were 5 scaling levels 1 shows 'never', 2 shows'mild', 3 shows 'moderate', 4 shows 'rather serious' and 5 shows 'severe'. Evaluation standard If the factor score ≥ 2, they had mild symptoms; if any factor score ≥ 3, they were regarded as probably having mental problems above moderate degree. The major statistical indexes were the 9 factor scores, detection rate of moderate pain (factor score ≥ 3) and positive item number (factor score ≥ 2), all of which were compared with the national normal norm.MAIN OUTCOME

MEASURES:

The mental health of male/female teachers and teachers of different ages in mountain areas.

RESULTS:

Totally 182 copies of questionnaire were distributed, and 146of them were collected, with an effective rate of 80.2%. ① The total detection rate of psychological problems was 51.7%, in which male teachers made up 48.8% while female teachers 53.3%. Those with psychological problems above moderate level constituted 6.1%, of which male teachers held 1.4% and female teachers held 4.8%. The detection rate of each psychological problem among teachers of mountain areas ranged from2.1% to 12.3%. The symptoms ranked in detection rate from high to low were obsessive disorder, anxiety, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, somatic symptom, psychoticism, paranoia, horror and hostility. ② The total score and total average score of self-assessed/measured symptom inventory of mountain area teachers were obviously higher than those of the normal norm. The number of positive items was smaller than that of the normal norm, but the average score of positive items was obviously higher than that of the normal norm. It showed that the level of mental health of mountain area teachers was generally lower than that of normal population in the nation. ③ All the factor scores on the self-assessed/measured symptom inventory of mountain area teachers were obviously higher than the level of national normal population (P ≤ 0.01). ④The number and average score of positive items of mountain area female teachers were higher than those of the male teachers. The factor scores on interpersonal sensitivity, depression and anxiety of the female teachers were higher than those of the male teachers with significant difference (P ≤ 0.05). ⑤The average score of positive items and the score of the factors such as somatic symptom and horror of the teachers aged ≥ 30 years old were significantly higher than those of the teachers aged under 30 years old (P≤ 0.01).

CONCLUSION:

The detection rate of psychological problems of mountain area teachers was relatively higher, which were mainly presented as obsessive disorder, interpersonal sensitivity, anxiety, depression, and somatic symptom. On the self-assessed/measured symptom inventory of the mountain area teachers, the total score, the total average score, the average score of positive items and the score of each factor were obviously higher than those of the national normal population. The incidence rate of psychological problems of the female teachers was higherthan that of the male teachers. The mental health leve1 of teachers aged 30 years old or above was relatively lower.