Predictors of Psychological Well-Being in Special Education Teachers: Fear of COVID-19 and Quality of Work Life

Abstract

The ultimate aim of this research is to investigate the COVID-19 fear and quality of work life variables’ extent to predict psychological well-being among special education teachers. Relational scanning was carried out in the research by the general scanning model. Convenience sampling technique, which is a type of non-random sampling method, was employed in the selection of special education teachers as participants in the research. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers, who work as special education professionals in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) and the Republic of Turkey (TR) were reached in online settings through Google Forms. The sample of research constituted by 133 special education teachers working in TRNC and 448 special education teachers working in TR. A total of 581 special education teachers were reached. “Demographic Information Form”, “COVID-19 Fear Scale”, “Work Life Quality Scale” and “Psychological Well-Being Scale” were utilized to obtain data for the study. This study yielded no statistical difference between the scores of special education teachers in TRNC and TR within the COVID-19 Fear Scale (p>0.05). It has been noticed that there is a statistically significant difference between the scores of the teachers participating in the study from the general work life quality scale and the subscales of work career satisfaction, general well-being, ability to control work, working conditions, stress in work life, family work life balance considering the region they work in (p<0.05). It was also revealed that the difference between the scores of special education teachers in TRNC and TR from the Psychological Well-being scale was statistically significant (p<0.05). Additionally, the COVID-19 Fear Scale scores of the special education teachers in TRNC and TR did not statistically predict the “Psychological Well-Being Scale” scores. It was found out that the scores obtained by special education teachers in TRNC and TR from the “Work Career Satisfaction, General Well-being and Family-Work Life Balance” sub-dimensions in the “Work Life Quality Scale” predicted the “Psychological Well-Being Scale” scores in a statistically significant and positive way.