Teilzeitbeschäftigung und psychische Gesundheit bei Gymnasiallehrkräften

Part-time employment and mental health among upper secondary school teachers Objective: Due to the acute shortage of teachers, there is a debate in Germany about increasing the teaching obligations for part-time teachers (PTT). Many secondary school teachers work part-time in order to cope better with the high workload. Whether a reduction in teaching hours has a favourable effect on mental health is not yet known. Therefore, this study of PTTs investigates the association between real weekly working time and their mental health (inability to recover, burnout risk). Methods: The cross-sectional study included 5905 PTTs at German secondary schools (women: 81 %, average age: 44 ± 9 years), who recorded their working time daily over four weeks. Four part-time groups (PTG) were formed based on the percentage of teaching obligations of a full-time position: maximum (<100–90 %=PTGmax – reference group), high (<90–75 %=PTGhigh), medium (<75–50 %=PTGmed) and low (<50 %=PTGmin). These groups were compared in terms of their average weekly working time and their average time spent on teacher-specific activities (teaching, teaching-related and non-teaching activities) as well as their mental health. Results: The majority of PTTs exceed their contractually agreed working time. Unpaid overtime increases the lower the teaching obligation and averages between –0.4 (PTGmax) and 7.3 (PTGmin) hours/week. The reduction in teaching time has no association with mental health. One third of PTTs reported an inability to recover, 47 % reported burnout symptoms and 3 % reported burnout syndrome. Conclusion: The actual working time/week of PTTs at secondary schools varies greatly and sometimes includes considerable overtime. There is also a risk of mental health disorders for PTTs and therefore a need for preventative measures. Instead of a legal obligation, PTTs should rather be encouraged to voluntarily increase the number of their teaching hours in order to counteract the general shortage of teachers. Keywords: part-time teachers – unpaid overtime – mental health – ability to recover – burnout risk