Psychological and Occupational Pressure Among Female Teachers in Light of the Coronavirus Disease Pandemic and Coping Strategies

<p style="text-align: justify;">This study aims at identifying the level of psychological and professional stress in light of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. It adopted descriptive and analytical methodologies. Two scales were prepared: one scale for psychological and professional stress and the other for coping with psychological and professional pressures. The study sample consisted of 608 female teachers at public schools in Al-Kharj province, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The results show a moderate level of psychological and professional stresses. The findings show statistically significant differences in teaching experience variable. The differences were in favour of female teachers with experience of less than 5 years. However, no statistically significant differences were found on the variable of academic qualification. It was found that female teachers had followed strategies to cope with psychological and professional stresses including resorting to faith, connecting with other teachers and students, planning different strategies, seeking help from others and managing time. The study recommends arranging training courses for female teachers to develop remote teaching skills and using various technologies and applications in this field particularly during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.</p>

Psychological training of fire service employees

The problem of premature professional burnout among employees, including firefighters is of scientific and practical significance. The article describes the nature and types of professional stress, as well as activities of the Training Center of the Federal Fire Service in Chelyabinsk Region. It aims to identify guidelines in the normative labor functions of rescuers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia and firefighters for training programs to prepare fire service employees for stressful activities. To achieve this goal, labor functions of rescuers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia and firefighters were analyzed; training programs developed by the Training Center of the Federal Fire Service in Chelyabinsk region were assessed. The methods of comparative analysis and conversation with experts were used to identify pedagogical aspects of labor functions of fire service employees associated with their willingness to work under stress. The article established a relationship between the training programs and the development of readiness to perform labor functions under stress. The condition required for the training program to be efficient was determined. It involves attracting the psychological service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations to hold methodical meetings and seminars. The positive result of this training is an adequate response to stress factors. The research results may be used by teachers of training centers and universities and methodologists.

Specifics of remote work mode as a modern format of professional activity in the context of the latest digital capabilities

Subject. The article considers the process of transition to remote working conditions for employees, both in Russia and abroad, due to the spread of the new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) in the world in 2020–2021, and the realization of the benefits of remote work. Objectives. The aims include the consideration of prospects for the digital economy development in the context of the application of new tools for effective work in a remote format, construction of a prognostic scenario for the development of remote mode of labor activity in Russia and in the world, justification of reasons that make it difficult to move to effective work activity outside the office. Methods. The study rests on current statistical and empirical Russian and foreign sources, leading scientific economic publications, analytical materials, surveys of Russian and American consulting companies and employment agencies. Results. We formulated the advantages of transition to remote work format of Russian and foreign employees, reasons for positive impact of the new work format on the potential and real growth of the world economy, an increase in employee motivation and reduction in professional stress. The paper substantiates reasons for possible difficulties in the process of transition to a remote mode of work in different countries. Conclusions. The study proves the prospects of switching to a remote format of work and using the latest achievements in science and technology to solve routine professional tasks of employees and enhance their motivation in the overall work process.

СИНДРОМ ЭМОЦИОНАЛЬНОГО ВЫГОРАНИЯ У МЕДИЦИНСКИХ РАБОТНИКОВ НА УРОВНЕ ПОЛИКЛИНИКИ

In recent years, the object of close attention of medicine and psychology has been the organization of the work of medical workers in connection with intense and often tense interpersonal communication, psychoemotional overloads leading to the onset of diseases, decreased ability to work and active period of life. The problem of professional stress, or «burnout syndrome» (BS) occupies an important place in the issue of the effective organization of work of such specialists [1]. The profession of a doctor requires physical health and psycho-emotional stability, because the daily work of medical workers is associated with the influence of complex stress factors, which leads to overload, rapid physiological and mental exhaustion.

Work Stress, Mental Health and Validation of Professional Stress Scale (PSS) in an Italian-Speaking Teachers Sample

This study aimed validate the Italian version of the Professional Stress Scale (PSS). A questionnaire was translated into Italian and administered to two sample groups. The first group (n = 200) was the control group and the second (n = 1137) the experimental group. The participants in the study were students enrolled in a special needs training teacher course or a specialization course that aims to train support teachers. The study conducted two analyses; factor and reliability analyses. The factor analysis utilized the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) test which had a result of 0.925 for the scale; this was above the acceptable value of 0.7. The research studied 33 items and the BTS was significant for the 33 items scale (χ2 (528) = 4353.508, p < 0.001). Moreover, five eigenvalues greater than 1 were identified in the data, whereas the total variance explained was 63.7%. The reliability test utilized the Cronbach’s Alpha score (0.936) of the scale and the value is calculated based on the response of 1106 individuals. The value is well above the value of 0.80, which indicates a high internal consistency level of the different items of the scale. This study showed that the Italian version of the PSS is a reliable and valid measure that can be used for research and clinical purposes.

Emotional Intelligence and Burnout of Teachers of Higher Education Institutions

Emotional intelligence is an important resource for overcoming professional stress in members of socionomic professions. The research objective is to determine the role of its components in the development of emotional burnout. A natural experiment was conducted, which determined the manifestations of emotional burnout of 56 university teachers at the end of the academic year. The author used the questionnaire. Two experimental groups were identified in the general sample: teachers with burnout and those resistant to burnout (16 and 30 people, respectively). At the end of the academic year, signs of burnout were detected in one-third of university teachers. The leading symptoms are emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation, with no reduction in professional achievement. The dynamics of emotional life during the annual professional cycle are shown. The integrated indicator of emotional intelligence (EI) remains at the same level, but there are structural changes in the components of intrapersonal intelligence. At the end of the year, teachers' attention to their emotional states, work roles, and communication increase significantly. At the same time, there is a decrease in the ability to manage their own emotions. Resistance to burnout is accompanied by a high ability to realise and control their own emotions with a relatively vague focus on the emotional states of others. It was concluded that individual components of EI (intrapersonal and interpersonal, understanding and management) have different effects on burnout symptoms.

STRESS INFLUENCE ON PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY OF ACADEMIC STAFF AND STRESS MANAGEMENT IN INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION

Subject under consideration in the article is the problem of stress in professional activity of academic staff. It has revealed modern scientific ideas about stress. The reasons, manifestations, consequences of professional stress of a university lecturer have been analyzed on the basis of applied sociological research conducted among the academic staff of National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine. The article presents the research results of professional stress impact on professional activity of academic staff. It has been shown that the professional activity of a lecturer is accompanied by numerous stress factors that determine professional stress and have negative influence on his/her professional activity effectiveness. It has been noted that the violation of adaptive mechanisms, low stress resistance with prolonged chronic influence of stress factors, leads to a number of psychosomatic diseases. The strategies of overcoming behavior in stressful situations have been studied among the scientific and pedagogical staff of NULES of Ukraine. The features of overcoming professional stress among teachers with different stress levels have been revealed. Gender characteristics of higher school teachers have been established: a high susceptibility of women to stress, due to their expressiveness, the desire for success in professional career and in personal life, as well as a high frequency of stress development among young teachers, since they have to gain credibility with students. It has been identified that professional stress among teachers with working experience is mainly due to numerous educational reforms and toughening requirements. The importance of stress resistance has been noted, which is associated with innate qualities, but can be strengthened by competent planning and administration responsibilities, the creation of a comfortable working environment by the heads of the faculties and departments, the work of psychologists and the lecturers themselves.

Features of Mental Stability of Security Department Staff with Different Duration of Service in the Penal System of the Russian Federation

Introduction: the article considers one of the urgent issues of legal psychology – the disclosure of the mechanisms of psychological stability in employees of security department of correctional institutions. Since the professional activity of security department employees has a sociogenic and stressful nature due to a number of parameters, the predominance of the impact of stress factors over the mechanisms of mental stability in many cases leads to negative implications such as the development of psychological burnout, social maladjustment and personality deformation. Aim: to determine internal mechanisms that reduce adaptive capabilities and factors that promote them, to study the features of psychological resistance to the action of social and stress factors in the security department employees, depending on the length of their service. Methods: we study the mechanisms of psychological stability of employees and the parameters of models of stress states with the use of the following methods: “Neuropsychic stability” (“Forecast”) technique developed by V.Yu. Rybnikov (1990), a method for assessing professional burnout developed by C. Maslach and S. Jackson (1986), innovative multi-factor methods for assessing basic professional typologies of stress and spirituality of an individual according to K.B. Malyshev (2021). Conclusions: the results of the study show that social stress among security personnel is one of the most traumatic forms of stress and it corresponds to the concept of professional stress. Moreover, the essence of the concept of psychological stability is associated with the study of subjective features of the phenomenon of disequilibrium of life activity – stress. Stress reflects the entire range of basic conditions – health and development, maladjustment and pathology. The data obtained in the study indicate the disharmonic nature of psychological adaptability (pseudo-adaptation) to the action of social stressors in employees with ten years of service experience. At the same time, the majority of respondents, in contrast to employees with a period in service of up to five years, have basic professional types of stress and spirituality, which indicates a low level of their socio-moral value orientations. This makes it necessary to develop innovative approaches to the prevention of professional stress and burnout among employees at all stages of their professional activity on the basis of the subject-subject paradigm in the development of the intention to form spiritual and moral values in an individual.