Mental health and emotional self-regulation in secondary education teachers

Abstract

The study aimed to assess the influence of emotional self-regulation on the management of depression, anxiety, and stress among secondary education teachers at the Local Educational Management Unit of Puno. It was a basic, quantitative, descriptive–correlational study with a sample of 150 secondary school teachers, using the Socioemotional Assessment Test and the DASS-21 to measure depression, anxiety, and stress. Pearson’s correlation and a multiple linear regression model were applied. The research revealed a significant negative correlation among the studied variables, highlighting that stress exerts the greatest negative effect on self-regulation. It is concluded that there is indeed a relationship among the variables; moreover, teachers with higher self-regulation skills present lower levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. Data analysis through multiple linear regression showed that nearly half of the variance in the ability to self-regulate emotions can be explained by the variables of the model (R² = 0.457). The results indicate that both anxiety (β = -0.4; p < 0.05) and stress (β = -0.442; p < 0.05) play an important role in predicting how individuals self-regulate their emotions. Conversely, depression, gender, and employment status did not demonstrate a significant influence on emotional self-regulation in this sample. In conclusion, the study demonstrates that anxiety and stress are indeed predictors of emotional self-regulation, whereas depression, gender, and employment status do not show significant influence.