37 Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction intervention for elementary school teachers: a mixed method study BACKGROUND In recent years, teachers in primary education report increasing levels of work pressure. For more than half of the teachers (i.e. 56%) in the Netherlands, this work pressure is unacceptably high (Grinsven, 2016). This pressure is not only related to the quantity of work, but also to the emotional demands of the work (Jennings, 2017). According to the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping (Lazarus, 1991) experienced stress is the result of the interpretation of a stressor and the capacity to regulate emotions. The continued experience of negative emotions in reaction to external stressors can cause feelings of stress (Roffey, 2012). Continuing high levels of stress can, in turn, lead to absenteeism or premature outflow from the profession in which the stress is experienced. In the Netherlands this is reflected in a high percentage of absenteeism and burnout symptoms in elementary school teachers (Statistics Netherlands, 2017). Furthermore, figures show that of all starting teachers, one in five leave the educational system within 5 years. One in eight teachers is actively searching for employment outside the educational field. Work pressure and related stress are specified as the most important reason (TNO/Statistics Netherlands, 2015). Continued stress in teachers leads to adverse effects on their mental health and wellbeing. Roffey (2012) conducted research in six Australian schools and showed that the extent to which teachers can cope with stress and regulate their emotions influences both cognitive and social performances. Stress and coping with stress also affect socalled teacher skills: skills needed to be capable of delivering high quality education and establishing effective class management (Meiklejohn et al., 2012). A review by Spilt, Koomen and Thijs (2011), in which results of 99 studies have been analysed, showed that stress in teachers had a negative impact on the pupil-teacher relationship. In turn, a poor pupil-teacher relationship had both direct and indirect adverse effects on the teacher’s mental health and well-being (Collie et al., 2017). It also led to misbehaviour, lack of motivation and diminishing achievements in pupils (Spilt et al., 2011; Roffey, 2012), which may also contribute to perceived teachers’ stress (Jennings, 2017). Even though there seems a great need for alleviating stress in teachers, studies exploring ways to do so in elementary schools are limited (Jennings, 2017). A metaanalysis of 65 independent studies on teachers’ stress showed that improved emotion regulation could be the key to stress reduction (Jennings, 2017). Only 17 of these studies concerned elementary school teachers. However, research shows that elementary school teachers are emotionally more involved in their teaching than teachers in higher education (Statistics Netherlands, 2020). Unlike teachers in higher education, elementary school teachers teach their pupils for 5 days a week. Skills such as insight into their own emotions and thoughts and the capacity to regulate these effectively while teaching, might contribute to reduction of perceived stress. Teachers who possess these skills are better 3
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