Mental health in school teachers: An explanatory model with emotional intelligence and coping strategies

Introduction. Even before the pandemic began, teachers faced multiple challenges such as diverse student populations with widely varying needs, excessive workloads, lack of community support, and adverse working conditions. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these problems. The teachers have been increasingly susceptible to stress, anxiety, and depression. The objective of this research was to evaluate the mediation effect of coping strategies on the relationship between emotional intelligence and teachers' mental health. Method. The design was explanatory with latent cross-sectional variables. The sample was 1668 Chilean school level teachers, 331 (19.8%) were men, and 1337 (80.2%) were women; the mean age was 42.08 years (SD = 11.50). Three scale self-report were used: the emotional intelligence WLEIS, the scale DASS-21 was used to measure mental health levels y, the short version of the COPE-28, for coping strategies. Results. This study showed that high levels of anxiety, depression, and stress are significantly related to the lower emotional intelligence of teachers. The strongest relationships are between mental health variables and the emotional intelligence evaluation and regulation of emotions. The results indicated that the dimensions of emotional intelligence predicted 22%, 26%, and 23% of the variance in anxiety, depression, and stress, respectively. The estimated mediation model showed satisfactory fit indices. For anxiety, active coping and religion were mediated, and for stress, substance abuse, self-distraction and disengagement were mediated. Also, the results showed indirect effects of two maladaptive coping strategies (denial and self blame) between the relationship of emotional intelligence the dimensions and depression, anxiety, and stress. Discussion and Conclusion. Explanatory models can be the basis for specific strategies to treat stress, anxiety, and depression in teachers. Considering the importance of the teaching role, the results of this study are useful to guide intervention actions that strengthen the management of emotions and the identification and use of effective coping strategies for the promotion of mental health.