Le bien-être psychologique des enseignants du primaire et du secondaire des commissions scolaires francophones du Québec

The psychological well-being of teachers has been a source of concern for several decades. The studies on the subject show that they suffer from psychological distress and this has an impact on the quality of their teaching as well as on the high rate of resignation. A high rate of resignation among teachers and a high rate of absenteeism reflect some problems within this profession. It is therefore necessary to deepen our understanding of the causes of this psychological distress, in order to make the necessary improvements. The purpose of this thesis is to assess the psychological well-being of primary and secondary school teachers in Quebec's French school boards and the sociodemographic factors that may play a role in their psychological health. The objectives of this research will be to measure the psychological well-being and psychological distress of teachers, to compare primary and secondary teachers, and to compare them according to different sociodemographic factors, such as age, gender, number of years of experience, etc. This will shed light on the factors that play a role in their psychological health.     Our sample consists of 827 primary and secondary school teachers and they answered a questionnaire assessing their sociodemographic factors, their psychological well-being, their psychological distress, their work environment and their lifestyle.   The results of this study show that teachers experience on average a satisfactory level of psychological well-being, which corresponds to 3.80 / 5 on the Likert scale, and almost never live psychological distress (1.86 / 5). On the other hand, the prevalence of teachers with a low level of psychological well-being is 28.3%, so this indicates a certain problem within this profession. In addition, our results show a significant difference in psychological well-being by the number of years of experience. Indeed, it is the most experienced teachers who have the best psychological well-being. A significant difference also made it possible to establish a link between the number of hours worked per week and psychological health. Teachers working more than 41 hours per week experience less well-being and more psychological distress. In addition, a statistical trend shows that women experience a little less psychological well-being than men. This study therefore concludes that it is necessary to adjust the teachers' work environment in order to improve their psychological health. Since it is teachers who have been working for more than 21 years who have better psychological health, it would be possible to believe that an improvement in working conditions would be favorable to them, so that these teachers do not have to work as many years before to see their psychological well-being increase.  It could also reduce the number of hours worked per week and this would certainly have an impact on their well-being. An upcoming study measuring the psychological well-being work environment with sociodemographic factors as moderator variables could tell us more about what may be causing poor psychological well-being and which sociodemographic factors are most at risk to suffer. In addition, since the psychological distress is quite low in our sample, this probably reflects extreme cases and it would be more appropriate to focus more on the prevalence of 28.3% who have low psychological well-being. One in four teachers does not experience well-being and this indicates a problem for this proportion of teachers. This result is consistent with the scientific literature on the subject. An upcoming study examining this prevalence by socio-demographic factors could tell us more about the teachers most at risk of experiencing distress and leaving the profession.

Keyphrases: stress, teacher, burnout, well being, psychological distress, sociodemographic factors, work experience, overtime