EXPLOITATION AND MENTAL SUFFERING AMONG TEACHERS: A STUDY IN THE STATE SCHOOL SYSTEM IN THE STATE OF PARANÁ, BRAZIL

Abstract The reorganization of the world of labor has a strong impact over the life and health statuses of the working class. Teachers, as well as other workers, have been going through a process of precarization of labor, among other consequences of flexible accumulation, with the increase in the requirements without a sufficient increase in the resources that are needed in order to perform the work. The significant increase in mental suffering among teachers seems to be connected to the new working conditions. With the goal of providing elements in order to face this issue, we developed a research with the aim of observing the association between the increase in exploitation in the work of the teachers and mental suffering. We performed a cross-sectional study using the Limesurvey online survey tool, in which 1,201 teachers of the state school system answered 2 online questionnaires: the Self-Reporting Questionnaire-20 and another one, developed by the researchers, about the working conditions of the teachers. The weekly working hours, the amount of students per classroom and the amount of classes of students per teacher showed an association with minor psychological disorders. The association between the amount of students per classroom and the presence of a minor psychological disorder was statistically significant. We concluded that the prevalence of cases that indicate psychological disorders is very high among teachers, and there are signs of an association with many different kinds of exploitation in the work of teachers.