The work kindergarten teachers and the teacher malaise: the impact of psychosocial factors in disease

Abstract

The study analyzes the relationship between labor process and illness in 196 teachers of Municipal Schools of Early Childhood Education in a medium-sized city in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The study was divided into two stages: qualitative and quantitative. In this article, we present preliminary results of the qualitative stage. The Job Content Questionnaire (Karasek, 2008) was used to capture the relationship between the demands arising from work of these teachers and the degree of control they have over it, as well as checking the social support received. Here the focus is the psychosocial aspects of work and its relationship with illness. The results revealed that a significant group of teachers is at risk of illness, working in an environment that requires a high degree of involvement, having little control over this work. The interaction between work and the work environment, job satisfaction and conditions of the organization in which these teachers exercise their functions, the way they are, can expose them to teacher malaise.