24 Chapter 2 in turn can increase the stress experienced by teachers (Jennings et al., 2017). Given the advisory and supportive role played by internal and external educational psychologists in assisting elementary school teachers, it is crucial to disseminate newly acquired insights into stress prevention. This is especially important as it not only positively impacts teacher functioning but can also have ripple effects on the pupil-teacher relationship and pupil performance. Reducing stress Although there is a significant need in the workplace to mitigate the stress experienced by teachers, there has been minimal worldwide research conducted on ways to reduce stress specifically among elementary school teachers. A meta-analysis of 65 independent studies on teacher stress experience, of which only 17 pertained to elementary school teachers, suggests that improved emotion regulation can be key to stress reduction (Jennings et al., 2017). Skills such as insight into one’s own emotions and thoughts, and the ability to effectively regulate these emotions and thoughts during teaching, contribute to reducing experienced stress. Teachers who possess these skills are better equipped to develop supportive relationships with their pupils, experience more positive emotions, exhibit greater mental resilience, and achieve higher levels of job satisfaction. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) A promising method to improve emotion regulation and reduce experienced stress is Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn (2013). He defines mindfulness as “being attentive in a special way: being consciously present in the here and now, without judgment.” Mindfulness can contribute to stress reduction by enhancing insight into thought patterns, fostering emotional awareness, and facilitating emotion regulation (Meiklejohn et al., 2012). A meta-analysis of 29 studies involving healthy adults demonstrates that participation in a mindfulness intervention significantly decreases stress perception and has a moderate effect on reducing depressive and anxiety symptoms, as well as improving quality of life (Khoury et al., 2015). The results of a meta-analysis involving more than 12,000 individuals with disorder-specific symptoms in psychiatry, such as depression, support the notion that mindfulness-based interventions are as effective as other evidence-based psychological and psychiatric treatments (Goldberg et al., 2018). Additionally, other studies have shown promising effects on worrying, attention, emotion regulation, personal performance, and empathy (Meiklejohn et al., 2012). An overview article by Tang et al. (2015) further confirms the positive effect on emotion regulation. Specifically, participants in an eight-week MBSR training exhibited an increase in gray matter density in the hippocampus compared to the control group, an area associated with emotion regulation. Furthermore, participants reported reduced emotional reactivity to unpleasant situations, decreased psychological reactivity, and quicker recovery to emotional stability following a stress response.
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