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Abstract
Objectives As a human service profession, teaching presents specific risk factors that could be intensified in socially disadvantaged schools and, ultimately, impact the service quality. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the association between school socioeconomic status and teachers’ well-being.
Design Population-based postal survey ‘Teachers’ Quality of Life’ (MGEN Foundation for Public Health/French Ministry of Education; 2013). To categorise the school socioeconomic status, we used the ‘Education Priority Area (EPA)’ administrative classification, which is chiefly based on the proportion of underprivileged students and is available for primary and lower secondary state schools.
Participants In-service French teachers randomly selected from among the teaching staff administrative list of the French Ministry of Education after stratification by sex, age and type of school.
Outcome measures Indicators of well-being at work included a question on job satisfaction, job difficulty evolution and the Maslach Burnout Inventory. The short version of the WHO Quality of Life questionnaire was used to evaluate overall well-being. Among primary and lower secondary school teachers, we evaluated cross-sectional associations between school EPA status and indicators of well-being, using logistic or linear regressions stratified by school level and adjusted for sociodemographic and work-related characteristics.
Results In the adjusted models, there was no significant difference in work-related well-being between teachers in EPA and non-EPA schools, both in primary school (n=154 vs n=788) and in lower secondary school (n=113 vs n=452). Regarding overall well-being, the only significant differences were seen among primary school teachers, with teachers in EPA schools reporting a worse perception of physical health and living environment than teachers in non-EPA schools.
Conclusion Using a representative sample of French teachers, we did not observe substantial differences in work-related well-being between teachers in EPA and non-EPA schools.
- epidemiology
- public health
- work environment
- well-being
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Footnotes
Contributors ST formulated the aims and research questions, analysed and interpreted the data and drafted the manuscript. NB carried out the data collection, participated in analysing and interpreting the data and reviewed the manuscript. M-NV conceived the study and its design, formulated the aims and research questions, participated in analysing and interpreting the data and reviewed the manuscript. All authors have critically revised the manuscript and approved the final version.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Ethics approval This study was approved by the national authorities, namely, the ‘Comité Consultatif sur le Traitement de l’Information en matière de Recherche dans le domaine de la Santé’ and the ‘Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés’ who were then responsible for protecting privacy and personal data.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data sharing statement No data are available.
Patient consent for publication Not required.