Psychological Well-Being, Mindfulness, and Impact of Stressful Events among Indian Teachers during COVID-19 Pandemic

Lockdown efforts introduced as response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted various facets of life including the educational sector. This study focuses on teachers’ mental health during this period. Research indicates positive mental health offsets negative impact of stress. The relationship of mental health assets such as psychological well-being, and mindfulness to COVID-19 event related stress is examined in this study. Teachers in India were approached through social media using snowball sampling to complete a survey. The survey consisted of the short version of Scales of Psychological Well-being (SPWB; Ryff, 1989), Cognitive and Affective Mindfulness Scale – Revised (CAMS-R; Feldman et al., 2007), and Impact of Event Scale – Revised (IES-R; Creamer, Bell, & Failla, 2003). Results indicate that there is moderate negative correlation between psychological well-being and impact of event, and between mindfulness and impact of event. Psychological well-being and mindfulness and positively correlated. This indicates that presence of positive mental health components can imply lower stress response during the pandemic. Further study will help identify causal direction among the variables, which can inform mental health programs.