Social Welfare: Interdisciplinary Approach eISSN 2424-3876
2021, vol. 11, pp. 19–32 DOI: https://doi.org/10.15388/SW.2021.11.12

Relationship between Teacher Work Motivation and Well-being at Different Stages of covid-19 Lockdown

Liudmyla Karamushka
G.S. Kostiuk Institute of Psychology of the NAES of Ukraine, Ukraine
lkarama01@gmail.com
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0622-3419

Oksana Kredentser
G.S. Kostiuk Institute of Psychology of the NAES of Ukraine, Ukraine
okred278@gmail.com
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4119-190X

Kira Tereshchenko
G.S. Kostiuk Institute of Psychology of the NAES of Ukraine, Ukraine
kteresh75@gmail.com
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1149-2704

Gelena Lazos
G.S. Kostiuk Institute of Psychology of the NAES of Ukraine, Ukraine
lazos.gelena@yahoo.com
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8935-2664

Alla Klochko
G.S. Kostiuk Institute of Psychology of the NAES of Ukraine, Ukraine
klochko_alla@ukr.net
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6631-2638

Abstract. Based on empirical research, the authors show that the first wave of the COVID-19 lockdown (March – June, 2020) had some negative impact on teacher well-being, in particular on such its component as physical health and well-being.

It has been found that the types of teacher work motivation have different relationships with teacher well-being at different stages of the COVID-19 lockdown.

The authors substantiate the necessity of developing teacher autonomous work motivation, in particular its identified and integrated types, to promote teacher well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: educational organizations, teachers, work motivation, well-being, lockdown, lockdown stages, COVID-19

Copyright © 2021 Liudmyla Karamushka, Oksana Kredentser, Kira Tereshchenko, Gelena Lazos, Alla Klochko. Published by Vilnius University Press. This is an Open Access journal distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has spread to all walks of life. Understanding the role of psychological factors at the levels of individuals, families, organizations, countries, and nations is crucial for responding to the pandemic-relevant challenges faced by the mankind (Arden & Chilcot, 2020; Kazak, 2020).

A review of the literature shows that, in general, lockdown measures have a negative impact on people’s mental health. For example, the prevalence of moderate to severe depression and emotional stress was significantly higher among the locked-down people than among those who were not (Xin et al., 2020; Marmarosh et al., 2020). However, these studies did not take into account the impact of such factors as people’s employment, education, work, etc., which may in some way compensate for the negative effects of lockdown and isolation. A number of studies within organizational psychology have focused on the impact of the pandemic on the work of organizations and staff, etc. (Giorgi et al., 2020; Kniffin et al., 2021).

Besides, researchers also have paid attention to the psychological problems faced by staff of educational organizations during the pandemic. A number of studies have been conducted in the institutions of higher education. Some of them analyzed the effectiveness of university administration’s support for the teaching staff in the situations of uncertainty and emotional exhaustion, which were caused by the pandemic (Charoensukmongkol & Phungsoonthorn, 2020), other explored manifestations of psychological stress (Besser et al., 2020). Also, researchers investigated different pandemic-relevant psychological problems encountered by teaching staff in secondary schools. Thus, Collie (2021) studied the impact of leadership on teacher pandemic-associated stress and emotional exhaustion. Kremin et al. (2020) analyzed the psychological and pedagogical conditions and technologies of teacher support during a lockdown.

Particular attention has been paid to subjective well-being during the pandemic. Thus, some aspects of well-being during the pandemic have been studied in Germany (Zacher & Rudolph, 2021). The study showed that although subjective well-being did not change significantly between December 2019 and March 2020, there was a steady decrease in people’s life satisfaction, positive effect and negative effect in the period from March to May 2020. The study further examined associations of stress appraisals and coping strategies with interindividual differences and intraindividual changes in subjective well-being. Instead, a Swedish longitudinal study of well-being among the elderly conducted in 2015–2020 (Kivi et al., 2021) showed that in the early stage of the pandemic, Swedish senior people on average rated their well-being as or even higher as/than in previous years. However, those who were more worried reported lower well-being. Similar results were obtained by Röhr et al. (2020), who found that the mental well-being of the German senior citizens hardly changed during the strict COVID-19 lockdown, which suggests their psychological resilience to a complex pandemic stress.

A number of researchers have also studied teacher psychological well-being (Allen et al., 2020; MacIntyre et al., 2020), in particular, the impact of teacher stress-coping strategies on their psychological well-being. However, teacher work motivation as their psychological well-being factor during the COVID-19 lockdown has not been studied yet. Given the lack of empirical data on the psychological characteristics of secondary school staff during the COVID-19 lockdown, we conducted a study to explore secondary school staff’s well-being at different stages of lockdown and the impact of secondary school staff’s work motivation on their well-being.

In our opinion, the need for such a study is due to the complexity of teacher work (high intensity, mobility, socialization, innovation, etc.), which has increased considerably during the lockdown, and to teachers’ personal characteristics (dedication to work (vocation), the needs for recognition, socializing, and stability, etc.), which cannot be realized during the lockdown. Thus, possible psychological difficulties in the work of teachers during the pandemic and the resources to overcome them seem to be an important research problem.

In our study we understood well-being as “a multidimensional concept encompassing multiple domains of human functioning. It is perhaps best defined as a state ‘in which the individual is able to develop in their potential, work productively and creatively, build strong and positive relationships with others, and contribute to their community’. The term ‘well-being’ encompasses several different concepts, and touches on issues of life satisfaction, social functioning and more practical aspects of quality of life” (Pontin et al., 2013).

The study of work motivation was based on the theory of self-determination (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Deci, 2000, 2017). Under this theory, intrinsic motivation is the desire of the individual to work because of the interest in the work itself, and the satisfaction and joy of having the work done, while extrinsic motivation motivates an individual to work by the goals that are extrinsic to the work itself.

In addition, we used the principle that an individual may have two types of work motivation-autonomous and controlled (Osin et al., 2017). Autonomous motivation includes the following types of motivation: a) intrinsic motivation (the desire of the individual to work because of the interest in the work itself, as well as the satisfaction and joy after the work is done); b) integrated motivation (work is in harmony with other spheres of life of the individual and is perceived as part of their own identity, such as vocation); c) identified motivation (work is done in order to achieve goals that are consciously chosen by the individual and are subjectively significant for them, such as career growth). Controlled motivation includes the following types of extrinsic motivation: a) introjected motivation (work is motivated by intrinsic rewards and punishments, such as pride, guilt, or conditional self-esteem); b) external motivation (work brings extrinsic rewards and prevents from negative consequences); c) amotivation (a condition when an individual has no desire to work and is unaware of the reasons to work).

Object of the research: teachers’ well-being and its relationship with work motivation at different stages of COVID-19 lockdown.

The aim of the research: to analyze the relationship between teacher work motivation and their psychological well-being at different stages of COVID-19 lockdown.

The methods of the research

The modified BBC Subjective Well-being scale (BBC-SWB) (Pontin et al., 2013) was used to analyze teacher well-being on the scale of well-being (overall) and the sub-scales of psychological well-being, physical health and well-being, and relationships.

A new version of the Work Motivation Questionnaire (WMQ) (Osin et al., 2017) was used to study teaching staff’s work motivation. The questionnaire measures six types of work motivation: intrinsic motivation, four types of extrinsic motivation (integrated, identified, introjected, and external), and amotivation.

The research data were processed using mathematical statistics (SPSS 22.0 for Windows): descriptive statistics (mean, std. deviation), Pearson correlation, and dependent samples t-test.

We analyzed the levels of teacher well-being and work motivation at the following stages: before the lockdown (early March 2020) – first assessment, during the lockdown (mid-March through May 2020) – second assessment, and after the lockdown (June 2020) – third assessment.

Sample

The sample was made up of 96 secondary school teachers (89% females and 11% males aged 27 through 65 (М = 40.31, SD = 9.48)) from Kiev region.

Results

In the first phase of the study, we analyzed the dynamics of teacher well-being at different stages of the first-wave COVID-19 lockdown (before the lockdown, during the lockdown, and after the lockdown).

As the data in Table 1 show, before the lockdown, the overall teacher well-being was at the middle level (M = 82.75, SD = 12.79). Teacher psychological well-being, physical health and well-being, and relationships were also at the middle level (M = 43.03, SD = 6.52; M = 21.59, SD = 4.61; M = 18.13, SD = 3.77 respectively).

Table 1
Descriptive statistics and comparisons of averages of teacher well-being components before and during the first-wave COVID-19 lockdown (N=96)

Components
of well-being

First assessment
(before lockdown)

Second assessment
(during lockdown)

t

p

М

SD

М

SD

Psychological well-being

43.03

6.52

42.26

5.87

-1.02

0.310

Physical health and well-being

21.59

4.61

20.40

4.10

-2.11

0.037

Relationships

18.13

3.77

18.41

3.38

0.65

0.516

Well-being (overall)

82.75

12.79

81.07

11.35

-1.19

0.239

During the lockdown, the overall teacher well-being was at the middle level (M = 81.07, SD = 11.35). Teacher psychological well-being, physical health and well-being, relationships were also at the middle levels (M = 42.26, SD = 5.87; M = 20.40, SD = 4.10; and M = 18.41, SD = 3.38 respectively).

To analyze the changes that occurred at the different stages of the lockdown, we compared the average values of well-being components. As can be seen from Table 1, there were statistically significant differences in teacher physical health and well-being before and during the lockdown. Thus, the average value of this component decreased from 21.59 to 20.40 (t = -2.11; p <0.05). In addition, the average overall teacher well-being values decreased from 82.75 to 81.07. This suggests that the lockdown had a certain negative impact on teacher well-being, especially on their physical health and well-being.

After the lockdown (Table 2), the overall teacher well-being was above the middle level (M = 87.59, SD = 12.31), which was also the case with teacher psychological well-being (M = 44.65, SD = 6.52) and teacher physical health and well-being (M = 24.10, SD = 4.16).

The comparison of mean values showed statistically significant differences between the second assessment (during the lockdown) and the third assessment (after the lockdown) in all components of teacher well-being, except for the teacher relationships. As can be seen in Table 2, the average values of overall teacher well-being increased from 81.07 to 87.59 (t = 4.45; p < 0.001), teacher psychological well-being increased from 42.26 to 44.65 (t = 3.06; p < 0.01), and teacher physical health and well-being increased from 20.40 to 24.10 (t = 6.81; p < 0.001). Thus, we can suggest that the end of the lockdown improved teacher well-being.

Table 2
Descriptive statistics and comparisons of averages of teacher well-being components during and after the first-wave COVID-19 lockdown (N=96)

Components
of well-being

Second assessment
(during lockdown)

Third assessment
(after lockdown)

t

p

М

SD

М

SD

Psychological well-being

42.26

5.87

44.65

6.52

3.06

0.003

Physical health and well-being

20.40

4.10

24.10

4.16

6.81

0.000

Relationships

18.41

3.38

18.84

3.52

0.95

0.342

Well-being (overall)

81.07

11.35

87.59

12.31

4.45

0.000

In the second phase of the study, we analyzed the dynamics of teacher work motivation at different stages of the first-wave COVID-19 lockdown (before the lockdown, during the lockdown, and after the lockdown).

Table 3 shows that before the lockdown, teacher intrinsic autonomous motivation was the most developed (M = 4.05, SD = 0.77), followed by the integrated autonomous motivation (M = 3.84, SD = 0.83) and identified autonomous motivation (M = 3.73, SD = 0.77). Introjected controlled motivation (M = 3.07, SD = 0.95) and external controlled motivation (M = 2.62, SD = 0.98) were less developed and amotivation was the least developed (M = 2.36, SD = 1.03).

Table 3
Descriptive statistics and comparisons of averages of teacher work motivation types before and during the first-wave COVID-19 lockdown (N=96)

Types of work
motivation

First assessment
(before lockdown

Second assessment
(during lockdown)

t

p

М

SD

М

SD

Autonomous motivation

Intrinsic motivation

4.05

0.77

4.20

0.78

1.54

0.127

Integrated motivation

3.84

0.83

3.88

0.77

0.32

0.751

Identified motivation

3.73

0.77

3.78

0.72

0.54

0.589

Autonomous motivation (overall)

11.62

2.13

11.86

2.02

0.90

0.371

Controlled motivation

Introjected motivation

3.07

0.95

2.78

0.90

-2.35

0.021

External motivation

2.62

0.98

2.26

0.97

-2.57

0.012

Amotivation

2.36

1.03

1.86

0.83

-3.79

0.000

Controlled motivation

(overall)

8.05

2.43

6.90

2.14

-3.73

0.000

As can be seen in Table 3, during the lockdown, as before the lockdown, the most developed types of teacher autonomous motivation were teacher intrinsic motivation (M = 4.20, SD = 0.78), integrated motivation (M = 3.88, SD = 0.77), and identified motivation (M = 3.78, SD = 0.72) with the introjected and external motivations less developed (M = 2.78, SD = 0.90 and M = 2.26, SD = 0.98, respectively).

The comparative analysis of teacher motivation before the lockdown and during the lockdown found statistically significant differences between such types of controlled motivation as introjected motivation (t = -2.35; p < 0.05), external motivation (t = -2.57; p < 0.05), amotivation (t = -3.79; p < 0.001), and overall controlled motivation (t = -3.73; p < 0.001). That is, during the lockdown, all types of controlled motivation (introjected, external, and amotivation) as well as the overall controlled motivation significantly decreased compared to the period before the lockdown. There were no statistically significant changes in the intrinsic, integrated, and identified motivations and the overall autonomous motivation. After the lockdown, such types of autonomous motivation as intrinsic motivation (M = 4.19, SD = 0.79), integrated motivation (M = 4.11, SD = 0.74), and identified motivation (M = 3.99, SD = 0.64) were shown to be the most developed, which confirmed the trend found previously. The introjected motivation (M = 3.09, SD = 0.78) and external motivation (M = 2.85, SD = 1.04) showed some increase, whereas amotivation was the least developed (M = 2.30, SD = 1.13).

The comparative analysis of teacher motivation during and after the lockdown found statistically significant increases in teacher integrated motivation (t = 2.30; p < 0.05), identified motivation (t = 2.21; p < 0.05), introjected motivation (t = 2.99; p < 0.01), external motivation (t = 4.77; p < 0.001), and amotivation (t = 2.94; p < 0.01) as well as the overall controlled motivation (t = 4.45; p < 0,001) after the lockdown (Table 4). At the same time, teacher intrinsic motivation and overall autonomous motivation had no statistically significant differences during and after the lockdown.

Table 4
Descriptive statistics and comparisons of averages of teacher work motivation types during and after the first-wave COVID-19 lockdown (N=96)

Types of work
motivation

Second assessment
(during lockdown)

Third assessment
(after lockdown)

t

p

М

SD

М

SD

Autonomous motivation

Intrinsic motivation

4.20

0.78

4.19

0.79

-0.156

0.876

Integrated motivation

3.88

0.77

4.11

0.74

2.30

0.024

Identified motivation

3.78

0.72

3.99

0.64

2.21

0.030

Autonomous motivation (overall)

11.86

2.02

12.29

1.91

1.56

0.121

Controlled motivation

Introjected motivation

2.78

0.90

3.09

0.78

2.99

0.004

External motivation

2.26

0.98

2.85

1.04

4.77

0.000

Amotivation

1.86

0.83

2.30

1.13

2.94

0.004

Controlled motivation

(overall)

6.90

2.14

8.24

2.60

4.45

0.000

The third phase of the study analyzed the relationship between teacher work motivation and teacher well-being at different stages of the first-wave COVID-19 lockdown.

We found positive statistically significant relationships between all types of teacher autonomous motivation and teacher psychological well-being at all stages of the lockdown (p < 0.001, p < 0.01, p < 0.05) (Table 5). However, teacher integrated motivation and overall autonomous motivation had stronger relationship with teacher well-being during the lockdown (p < 0.001, p < 0.01) and after the lockdown (p < 0.001), compared to the period before the lockdown (p < 0.05, p < 0.01). Teacher intrinsic motivation did not have this relationship, although before and during the lockdown this relationship was weak (p < 0.05). Thus, these findings suggest the important role of autonomous work motivation for teacher psychological well-being during and after the lockdown.

Teacher physical health and well-being, as a component of overall well-being, had a positive statistically significant relationship with teacher integrated autonomous work motivation at all stages of the lockdown (p < 0.05). Teacher identified autonomous work motivation had no positive statistically significant relationship with physical health and well-being during the lockdown but it had this relationship before and after the lockdown (p < 0.01). The intrinsic motivation had a weak positive statistically significant relationship with physical health and well-being after the lockdown (p < 0.05). Thus, we can conclude that after the lockdown, the role of autonomous work motivation in providing of teacher physical health and well-being is clearly increasing. We should specially note the growing role of the integrated and identified types of autonomous work motivation.

Relationships, as a component of teacher well-being, had a positive statistically significant relationship with autonomous work motivation during and after the lockdown. This relationship was mostly strong (p < 0.001) with identified motivation and overall autonomous motivation and it was moderate with integrated motivation and intrinsic motivation (p < 0.01). Most likely, this can be explained by the fact that psychological stress caused by the lockdown contributed to teachers’ understanding of the importance of relationships with their colleagues, school administration, and relatives in promoting their well-being.

Table 5
Correlations between teacher work motivation and psychological well-being at different stages of the first-wave COVID-19 lockdown

Types
of work motivation

Psychological
well-being

Physical health
and well-being

Relationships

Overall well-being

First
assessment

Second
assessment

Third
assessment

First
assessment

Second
assessment

Third
assessment

First
assessment

Second
assessment

Third
assessment

First
assessment

Second
assessment

Third
assessment

Autonomous motivation

Intrinsic motivation

0.26*

0.22**

0.34**

0.16

0.08

0.22*

0.07

0,15

0.30**

0.21*

0.19

0.34**

Integrated motivation

0.23*

0.47***

0.53***

0.21*

0.20*

0.20*

0.09

0,30**

0.33**

0.22*

0.41***

0.45***

Identified motivation

0.32**

0.28**

0.54***

0.28**

0.14

0.30**

0.18

0,17

0.36***

0.32**

0.25*

0.49***

Autonomous motivation (overall)

0.30**

0.36***

0.53***

0.24*

0.16

0.27**

0.12

0,23*

0.37***

0,27**

0.32**

0.48***

Controlled motivation

Introjected motivation

0.02

-0.09

-0.09

0.20

-0,24*

0.19

0,02

-0,07

-0.09

0.09

-0.15

-0.01

External motivation

-0.10

-0.19

-0.14

0.09

-0.29**

0.19

0.08

-0,23*

-0.08

-0,01

-0,27**

-0.04

Amotivation

-0.12

-0.15

-0.16

0.06

-0,06

0.16

-0,06

-0,04

-0.08

-0,05

-0,11

-0.05

Controlled motivation (overall)

-0.09

-0.18

-0.15

0.14

-0,26*

0.20

0,01

-0,16

-0.09

0,01

-0,23*

-0.04

* – p < 0.05; ** – p < 0.01; *** – p < 0.001

As can be seen in Table 5, there was a positive statistically significant relationship between all types of teacher autonomous work motivation and their overall well-being before and after the lockdown (p < 0.05; p < 0.01; p < 0.001). However, integrated and identified motivations had this relationship during the lockdown, too.

Thus, we can conclude that the role of all types of teacher autonomous work motivation in promoting their well-being clearly increased after the lockdown. It should be noted that (1) the roles of integrated and identified motivations were more important than that of the intrinsic motivation, (2) the roles of intrinsic, integrated, and identified motivations were especially important both during and after the lockdown, (3) teacher psychological well-being and overall well-being had the strongest relationship with teacher autonomous work motivation.

Next, we analyzed the relationship between controlled work motivation and all components of teacher well-being (mental health, physical health, relationships, and overall well-being) in general and at different stages of the first-wave COVID-19 lockdown (Table 5).

Physical health and well-being, as a component of well-being, had a weak negative statistically significant relationship with the overall controlled motivation during the lockdown (p < 0.05). Introjected and external motivations had negative statistically significant relationships with teacher physical health and well-being during the lockdown (p < 0.05; p < 0.01). In other words, these motivations had a negative effect on teacher physical health and well-being.

Relationship, as a component of well-being, had a negative statistically significant relationships with external motivation (p < 0.05), as a type of controlled motivation, during the lockdown, which suggests that this type of controlled motivation had some impact on teacher well-being.

Overall well-being had a negative statistically significant relationships with the external motivation (p < 0.01) and the overall controlled motivation (p < 0.05) during the lockdown.

Thus, it can be concluded that controlled motivation negatively affected teacher well-being during the lockdown.

We also found that amotivation, which implied that teachers had no desire to work, did not have any relationship with well-being.

Discussion

The study found that the first-wave COVID-19 lockdown had some negative impact on teaching staff’s well-being, especially on such its component as physical health and well-being.

This is consistent with the findings of other researchers regarding the decline in the well-being of the adult population in various European countries during the pandemic (Röhr et al., 2020; Zacher & Rudolph, 2021; Kivi et al., 2021). In addition, the obtained data are consistent with the results of the studies, which found a number of physical and mental health problems faced by the staff of educational organizations (Karamushka et al., 2020) and increased emotional exhaustion and psychological stress among university teachers during the COVID-19 lockdown (Charoensukmongkol & Phungsoonthorn, 2020; Besser et al., 2020).

The obtained results are also in line with the findings of other scientists on teacher well-being. Thus, Allen et al. (2020) showed that some components of teacher well-being (feeling useful, feeling optimistic) declined during lockdown, while other components (having energy to spare, thinking clearly) showed an improvement.

It was proved by our research that teacher work motivation has relationship with teacher well-being at different stages of the COVID-19 lockdown, which was evidenced by the following findings: a) before the lockdown, there were positive statistically significant relationships (mostly weak) between all types of autonomous motivation (intrinsic, integrated, identified) and such components of well-being as psychological well-being, physical health, and overall well-being, while controlled motivation did not have such relationships; b) during the lockdown, all types of autonomous motivation (intrinsic, integrated, identified) and overall autonomous motivation had direct statically significant relationships (moderate and significant) with such component of well-being as psychological well-being and overall well-being. Introjected and external types of controlled motivation and the overall controlled motivation had negative statically significant relationships with physical health and well-being, relationships, and overall well-being; c) after the lockdown, all types of autonomous motivation (intrinsic, integrated, and identified) and overall autonomous motivation had positive statistically significant relationships (mostly strong) with all components of well-being (psychological well-being, physical health and well-being, relationships, and overall well-being), but controlled motivation did not have such relationship.

Thus, the study found an increased importance of autonomous work motivation, especially integrated and identified motivations during and after lockdown, and insignificance of controlled motivation for teachers’ well-being before and after the lockdown.

As has been already mentioned, the relationship between teacher well-being and teacher work motivation at different stages of the first-wave COVID-19 lockdown has not previously been the subject of analysis. However, the data obtained by us before the lockdown are quite consistent with the data obtained by other researchers who studied the relationship of well-being with work motivation in commercial organizations (Ryan & Deci, 2017; Osin et al., 2017).

It should be noted that the study under consideration has some limitations. The study was conducted in the central region of Ukraine, while, possibly, in other regions of the country, the levels of teacher well-being and work motivation during the COVID-19 pandemic may be different. Therefore, in the future it would be appropriate to conduct similar research in other regions of Ukraine and compare the findings.

Another limitation of the study is due to the fact that it did not examine the differences between different categories of educational organization staff (managers, employees, women, men, etc.). Future research should focus on the relevant differences between these categories of workers.

The obtained data can be helpful in the work of educational organizations, in particular, for increasing managers and teachers’ awareness of the role of autonomous work motivation in improving their well-being. Promising in this context is the development of special training programs on the problem of psychological well-being and work motivation development.

Conclusions

The first-wave COVID-19 lockdown (March–June 2020) was found to have some negative impact on teachers’ well-being, especially their physical health and well-being.

Teacher work motivation was shown to have relationship with teacher well-being at different stages of the COVID-19 lockdown: before the lockdown, all types of autonomous motivation and the overall autonomous motivation had positive statistically significant relationships (mostly weak) with such components of well-being as psychological well-being, physical health, and overall well-being, whereas controlled motivation did not have such relationships; during the lockdown, all types of autonomous motivation and the overall autonomous motivation had positive statically significant relationships (moderate and strong) with such components of well-being as psychological well-being and overall well-being, whereas integrated motivation had such relationships with all types of well-being and overall well-being. However, certain types of controlled motivation (introjected, external) and overall controlled motivation had negative statically significant relationship with such components of well-being as physical health and well-being and relationships and overall well-being; after the lockdown, all types of autonomous motivation and overall autonomous motivation had positive statistically significant relationships (mostly strong) with all components of well-being, whereas controlled motivation did not have such relationships.

Thus, we showed the positive role of autonomous work motivation, especially integrated and identified motivations, in promoting teachers’ well-being during and after the lockdown, and the negative role of controlled motivation during the lockdown and insignificance of controlled motivation before and after the lockdown.

References

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Relationship Between Teacher Work Motivation and Well-being at Different Stages of covid-19 Lockdown

Liudmyla Karamushka, Oksana Kredentser, Kira Tereshchenko

Gelena Lazos, Alla Klochko, G.S. Kostiuk Institute of Psychology of the NAES of Ukraine, Ukraine

Summary

The COVID-19 pandemic can negatively affect the work of educational organizations and the psychological well-being of teaching staff. This calls for a search of psychological resources that would help prevent the decline of teacher psychological well-being. According to the relevant scientific literature, one of such psychological resources is teachers’ work motivation.

The object of the study was teacher work motivation as a determinant of their psychological well-being at different stages of the COVID-19 lockdown.

The aim of the study was to analyze the relationship between teacher work motivation and their psychological well-being at different stages of the COVID-19 lockdown.

The study was conducted using: the modified BBC Subjective Well-being scale (BBC-SWB) (Pontin et al., 2013), which allowed analyzing teacher well-being on the scale of well-being (overall) and the sub-scales of psychological well-being, physical health and well-being, and relationships; a new version of the Work Motivation Questionnaire (WMQ) (Osin et al., 2017), which allowed measuring six types of work motivation: intrinsic motivation, four types of extrinsic motivation (integrated, identified, introjected, external, and amotivation). The research data were processed using mathematical statistics (SPSS 22.0 for Windows): descriptive statistics (mean, std. deviation), Pearson correlation, dependent samples t-test.

The sample was made up of 96 secondary school teachers (89% females and 11% males aged 27 through 65 (М = 40.31, SD = 9.48)) from Kiev region.

The first-wave COVID-19 lockdown (March-June 2020) was found to have some negative impact on teacher well-being, especially on such its component as teacher physical health and well-being.

Certain types of teacher work motivation can be important psychological factors that can increase the role of all components of teacher well-being during and especially after the lockdown. This is most evident for such types of autonomous work motivation as identified and integrated motivations, and much less for intrinsic motivation, which is associated with interest in the process of work and getting pleasure from its results. However, controlled work motivation (external and introjected) had only negative relationships with certain components of teacher well-being during the lockdown. It was also shown that amotivation had no relationship with teacher well-being.

The authors substantiated the necessity of developing autonomous work motivation, first of all its identified and integrated types, to promote teacher well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The obtained findings can be used by educational organization administrations and psychologists in providing psychological support for teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular, for helping teachers to promote their well-being and various types of their work motivation.

Corresponding author’s
email: lkarama01@gmail.com