Background: Persistent psychosocial stress is endemic in the modern workplace, including among mi... more Background: Persistent psychosocial stress is endemic in the modern workplace, including among midcareer high school (secondary comprehensive) teachers in England. Understanding contextual influences on teachers' self-management of stress along with their use of digital health technologies could provide important insights into creating more usable and accessible stress support interventions. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the constraints on stress management and prevention among teachers in the school environment and how this shapes the use of digitally enabled stress management tools. Methods: Semistructured interviews were conducted with 14 teachers from southern England. The interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: Teachers were unanimous in their recognition of workplace stress, describing physical (such as isolation and scheduling) and cultural (such as stigma and individualism) aspects in the workplace context, which influence their ability to manage stress. A total of 12 participants engaged with technology to self-manage their physical or psychological well-being, with more than half of the participants using consumer wearables, but Web-based or smartphone apps were rarely accessed in school. However, digital well-being interventions recommended by school leaders could potentially be trusted and adopted. Conclusions: The findings from this study bring together both the important cultural and physical contextual constraints on the ability of midcareer high school teachers to manage workplace stress. This study highlights correlates of stress and offers initial insight into how digital health interventions are currently being used to help with stress, both within and outside high schools. The findings add another step toward designing tailored digital stress support for teachers.
Background: There are thousands of digital companions designed for emotional well-being and stres... more Background: There are thousands of digital companions designed for emotional well-being and stress, including websites, wearables, and smartphone apps. Although public evaluation frameworks and ratings exist, they do not facilitate digital companion choice based on contextual or individual information, such as occupation or personal management strategies. Objective: The aim of this study is to establish a process for creating a taxonomy to support systematic choice of digital companions for teachers' stress self-management. Methods: We used a 4-step study design. In step 1, we identified the dimension of stress self-management and strategic classifications. In step 2, we identified the dimension of the digital techniques and conceptual descriptions. In step 3, we created 6 criteria for the inclusion of digital companions. In step 4, we used the taxonomy framework created by steps 1 and 2 and populated it with digital companions for stress self-management, as identified in step 3. Results: First, in the dimension of stress self-management, we identified four classes of strategies: educational, physiological, cognitive, and social. Second, in the digital techniques dimension, we derived four conceptual descriptions for the digital companions' mechanisms of action: fostering reflection, suggesting treatment, peer-to-peer support, and entertainment. Third, we created six criteria for digital companion inclusion in the taxonomy: suitability, availability, evaluation, security, validity, and cost. Using the taxonomy framework and criteria, we populated it with digital companions for stress management ahead of presentation to teachers in a stress study workshop. Conclusions: The elements of our approach can be generalized as principles for the creation of taxonomies for other occupations or conditions. Taxonomies such as this could be a valuable resource for individuals to understand which digital companion could be of help in their personal context.
Facilitators and Barriers to Teachers’ Engagement with Consumer Technologies for Stress Management: A Qualitative Study (Preprint)
BACKGROUND Consumer technology is increasingly being adopted to support personal stress managemen... more BACKGROUND Consumer technology is increasingly being adopted to support personal stress management, including by teachers. Multi-disciplinary research has contributed some knowledge of design and features that can help detect and manage workplace stress. There is less understanding however of what facilitates engagement with ubiquitous ‘off-the-shelf’ technologies, particularly in a specific occupational setting. An understanding of features that facilitate or inhibit technology use, and the influences of contexts on the manner of interaction, could improve teachers’ stress management opportunities. OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was to investigate interaction features that facilitated or inhibited use of four consumer technologies chosen by teachers for stress management, as well as the influence of the educational contexts. We also examined how wellbeing technology use could be better supported in the school. METHODS The choice of consumer technologies was framed for teachers acco...
Smartphone accessibility: understanding the lived experience of users with cervical spinal cord injuries
Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology
Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy, Aug 1, 2020
These have been summarized as (a) teaching unmotivated students; (b) maintaining discipline; (c) ... more These have been summarized as (a) teaching unmotivated students; (b) maintaining discipline; (c) time pressures and workload; (d) coping with change; (e) being evaluated by others; (f) dealings with colleagues; (g) self-esteem and status; (h) (poor) administration and management; (i) role conflict and ambiguity; and (j) poor working conditions (Camacho et al. 2018). Additionally, challenging student de
On coalition health policy. All action on the united front
The Health service journal, May 20, 2010
Stress and wellbeing: Qualitative exploration of senior secondary school teachers' symptoms, management and use of digital support tools
Financing programme
value-based pricing for pharmaceuticals in theUK Panos Kanavos/Julia Manning/ David Taylor/Willem... more value-based pricing for pharmaceuticals in theUK Panos Kanavos/Julia Manning/ David Taylor/Willemien Schurer/
Mark is an independent policy consultant, researcher and writer, specialising in international de... more Mark is an independent policy consultant, researcher and writer, specialising in international development and public health. He has close links with the Harvard School of Public Health, UK policy consultancy River Path Associates and UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, and is a contributor to Global Dashboard, the foreign affairs blog. He has produced a series of reports for the World Economic Forum on how businesses can strengthen their response to AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and his paper on 'The Value of Vaccination', which showed how vaccination can boost economies, was recently published in World Economics.
Background There are thousands of digital companions designed for emotional well-being and stress... more Background There are thousands of digital companions designed for emotional well-being and stress, including websites, wearables, and smartphone apps. Although public evaluation frameworks and ratings exist, they do not facilitate digital companion choice based on contextual or individual information, such as occupation or personal management strategies. Objective The aim of this study is to establish a process for creating a taxonomy to support systematic choice of digital companions for teachers’ stress self-management. Methods We used a 4-step study design. In step 1, we identified the dimension of stress self-management and strategic classifications. In step 2, we identified the dimension of the digital techniques and conceptual descriptions. In step 3, we created 6 criteria for the inclusion of digital companions. In step 4, we used the taxonomy framework created by steps 1 and 2 and populated it with digital companions for stress self-management, as identified in step 3. Resul...
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