The stress and burnout among lecturers in the universities with online teaching in Vietnam during COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

During COVID-19 pandemic, the education system is one of many aspects in our life which is changed according to the effect of pandemic. Changing from traditional teaching method to new digital teaching method, may lead to adverse health effects directly to mental health of lecturers, including stress and burnout. This study aimed 1) to investigate the level of stress and burnout among lecturers in the universities in Vietnam during COVID-19 pandemic 2) to find the association among demographic, COVID-19 factors, difficulties in teaching online, and stress, burnout among tertiary education lecturers in Vietnam. This study was a cross-sectional study conducted during April to June 2022 using online questionnaire. 334 lecturers in universities in Vietnam were collected their personal information, stress, and burnout using convenience sampling. The measurement tools were PSS-10 and MBI_ES questionnaire. Chi square test was carried out to find the associated factors. The results of characteristics of participants showed most of them were female (78.4%), majority were aged from 31 to 40 years (52.1%), married (69.5%), and personal income from 501 USD to 700 USD (33.8%). 82.9% of participants were with moderate stress, 62.3% of participants were with moderate burnout. The percentage of individuals with high emotional exhaustion (EE), high depersonalization (DE), and low personal accomplishment (PA), were 15.3%, 14.1%, and 16.8%, respectively. The associated factors of stress were education level (p=0.025), working hour per week (p=0.00), teaching method (p=0.036). For burnout, there were personal income (p=0.006), working experience (p=0.011), education background (p= 0.021), and working hour per week (p=0.00). For EE, the associated factors included gender (p=0.006), age (p=0.000), personal income (p=0.006), family income (p=0.045), working experience (p=0.043), education level (p=0.000), working hour per week (p=0.000). Regarding DE, there were age (p=0.024), education background (p=0.040), working hour per week (p=0.000), and teaching method (p=0.050). For PA, found age (p=0.000), marital status (p=0.050), personal income (p=0.005), working experience (p=0.000), education level (p=0.000), working hour per week (p=0.000) were significant association. This study suggested that the stress level and burnout among university lecturers are substantial and should be concerned. Understanding the associated factors are likely to solve disadvantages, minimize the level of stress, burnout and improve the efficiency of education in the regrettable situation.