Describing Teachers' Well-Being Prior to and 18 Months After COVID-19 School Closures, with a Focus on Early-Career Teachers and Teachers of Color

The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced several unprecedented challenges to the U.S. public education system that have negatively impacted the nation's teaching workforce. This study describes fourth grade teachers' depressive and anxious symptoms and burnout prior to and 18 months after prolonged COVID-19 school closures in the 2020/2021 academic year. Within this, we provide further insight into the well-being of early-career teachers and teachers of color in order to highlight groups of teachers that may have been differentially impacted by pandemic-related stressors. Independent samples t-tests and analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that teachers who reported on their well-being after schools resumed markedly higher depressive symptoms, anxious symptoms, and burnout than teachers who reported prior to school closures, and that symptoms were highest among early-career teachers and teachers of color in the latter group, with teachers of color in the latter group reporting the highest symptomatology levels across all outcomes. Results can inform efforts to support teachers as we continue to navigate the long-term effects of the pandemic on teachers and students, and provide evidence that early-career teachers and teachers of color should be especially prioritized for targeted support. We described elementary teachers' self-reported mental health symptomatology among two groups of teachers: one group that reported before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and one group that reported approximately 18 months later, upon returns to in-person schooling. We focused on early-career teachers and teachers of color as groups that may have experienced particularly heightened mental health challenges. All teachers in the post-closures group reported higher mental health symptoms, and early-career teachers and teachers of color reported the highest levels of symptoms.