LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF THE MENTAL HEALTH OF THOSE EMPLOYED AS TEACHERS IN A HUNGARIAN PUBLIC EDUCATION INSTITUTION IN THE LIGHT OF THE SITUATION CAUSED BY THE SARS-COV-2 PANDEMIC, WITH A 5-ITEM WHO WELL-BEING QUESTIONNAIRE (WBI-5)

Abstract

Numerous studies have examined the effects of the rapidly globalized SARS-COVID virus. The Hungarian government's response to the pandemic required structural changes in education alongside  changes in educational methodology. Moving away from traditional practices, educational processes have been placed in digital space - changing the practice of more than 100 years.  Regarding the transformation, not only did its speed cause difficulties, but also the necessary systems and digital competences were lacking in many cases; most educators did not have the necessary ICT tools to perform everyday tasks. We used an inductive, empirical research strategy in our research. The aim was to conduct a longitudinal mixed-methods study of school teachers (2779 item were obtained) to evaluate 3 data sets and supplementary interviews for correlations between mental health indicators, burnout scale correlations, self-efficacy, and the use of online platforms. We gathered data from Hungarian teachers by using an online version of the 5 item World Health Organisation (WHO) welfare questionnaire (WBI-5) and analyzed it with SPSS 25.0 statistical software. The results confirmed our assumptions, as the average values of the subjective well-being of the teachers participating in the research were the highest at the time of the first data collection. Values for each subsequent survey show a lower value than the first and a larger standard deviation. Based on the results obtained, a decrease in the subjective well-being of educators completing questionnaires during the SARS-COV-2 virus can be reported. The sum of the average scores obtained during the completion of the WBI-5 questionnaire also confirms this trend. The peculiarity of the data collection is that the values obtained were the lowest during the second survey (when the participants were already past a wave of illness and the news reported new ones). Although the values of data set 3 are lower than the first time, they are better than the values of data set 2, which may be triggered by the appearance of vaccinations. Further data analysis is needed to establish this.