Investigating the Effects of a Dyad Intervention on Teacher Resilience, Mental Health, and Social Emotions and Behavior

Investigating the Effects of an Online Empathy-Compassion Dyad Intervention on Teacher Resilience, Mental Health, Social Emotions, Social Communication, and Interactions

The COVID-19 pandemic increased psychological burdens in Germany, especially among teachers who have reported higher levels of emotional exhaustion and burnout compared to the general population. Even before the pandemic, teachers found their work highly stressful. Mindfulness- and compassion-based interventions, as well as socio-emotional learning interventions, show promise in combating burnout among educators. Despite increased research, partner-based Dyads have not been explored in schools. Recent studies suggest these social practice formats are more effective than solo mindfulness techniques in reducing loneliness, and social stress, and enhancing social connections and resilience. Additionally, the impact of these interventions on student, classroom, collegium, and system levels remains under-researched.

This study extends the CovSocial project and the ReSource project, which showed the effectiveness of partner-based dyadic mental training on stress reduction, resilience, and social cohesion. The first goal is to test a 10-week online empathy-compassion (EmCo) Dyad training program, inspired by the Affect Dyad from the ReSource project and the online coaching Dyad from the CovSocial project, incorporating empathic and compassionate listening.

The second goal is to evaluate the Dyad intervention's effects in an educational context, focusing on teachers' mental health, social capacities, social networks, and classroom climate, measured across: 1) mental health and resilience, 2) social emotions, 3) social interaction, 4) communication and listening skills, and 5) classroom climate. The third aim is to develop and validate the Teacher Autonomic Voice Assessment (TAVA) and the Egocentric Social Network Analysis Paradigm (e-SNAP), using autonomic measures and voice recordings to assess teachers' emotional states. The final aim is to investigate the cognitive and affective mechanisms driving changes in teachers' mental health, resilience, and social-emotional competencies.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a dramatic rise in psychological burden and strain within Germany. German teachers, specifically, have reported increased emotional exhaustion and professional burnout, at levels exceeding those of the general population. The rise in teacher burnout is particularly alarming given that teachers already perceived their work as stressful and reported high rates of burnout prior to the pandemic. Mindfulness- and compassion-based interventions as well as socio-emotional learning interventions offer a promising approach to combating burnout among education professionals. Despite an increase in research efforts to alleviate burnout through such mental training intervention programs, partner-based Dyads have never been investigated in the school context. Yet, recent research suggests that these social practice formats are more efficient than classic mindfulness techniques practiced alone when it comes to reducing loneliness and social stress, boosting social connections and cohesion as well as resilience. Interestingly, the underlying mechanisms of these different types of interventions seem to be also rather different ones. Finally, the extent to which these interventions promote desired outcomes at the student, classroom, collegium, and system levels remains poorly known in the empirical literature.

This study is an extension of the CovSocial project and the preceding ReSource project, which provided evidence of the effectiveness of partner-based dyadic mental training interventions on stress reduction, psychological resilience, and social cohesion across multiple traits and state-level indicators of biopsychosocial health.

The first main goal of the proposed study is to test the efficacy of an adapted 10-week online empathy-compassion (EmCo) Dyad training program which both the original Affect Dyad inspired developed originally in the ReSource project and the 10-weeks online coaching Dyad program later developed in the context of the CovSocial project, and now includes an important differentiation between empathic and compassionate listening based on previous research in the lab.

A second main goal is to test the effects of such Dyad intervention in the educational context with a focus on boosting teachers' mental health and social capacities as well as their social networks and the classroom climate. The intervention effects will be measured in several families of outcomes which we will call domains: 1) mental health and resilience, 2) social emotions, 3) social interaction, 4) communication and listening skills, and 5) classroom climate. The third aim is to develop and validate two novel tasks, the Teacher Autonomic Voice Assessment (TAVA) and the Egocentric Social Network Analysis Paradigm (e-SNAP). In exploring the use of both autonomic measures as well as voice recordings as indicators of the emotional states of the teachers in the classroom, we hope to provide more objective markers of training-induced changes in the teachers' social connections, emotional well-being, self-regulation skills, as well as communication competency during real-time class instruction.

The final aim is to assess underlying cognitive and affective mechanisms driving the observed changes in teachers' mental health, resilience, and social-emotional competencies.

In a multi-factorial mixed (between- and within-subjects) design, the type of intervention will serve as the between-subjects variable with two levels: (a) the EmCo dyad training and (b) a waitlist control group. The within-subject effects from pre- to post-intervention will be evaluated at three time points in the intervention group at the pre-test, mid-test (after 5 weeks), and post-test (after an additional 5 weeks). In the waitlist control group, the variables of interest will be assessed at three time points including pre-test, mid-test and post-test. In a second step, the waitlist control group will also undergo a 5-week period of empathy-based socio-emotional intervention, followed by another 5-week period of compassion-based socio-emotional intervention, using the same protocol and testing as above (sequential intervention approach). If recruitment barriers prevent the implementation of a waitlist control group, only the within-subject pre-post effects as well as all individual difference hypotheses will be tested.

The EmCo Dyad intervention implemented here is based on the daily Affect Dyad practice, and a 10-week program consisting of 10 teacher-guided 1.5-hour online coaching sessions to deepen the daily practice inspired by the CovSocial project. In comparison to the 10-week online training developed in the CovSocial project, an additional component has been added, namely the difference between empathic and compassionate listening. This Dyad program was designed to enhance a) interoceptive body awareness, b) acceptance of challenging emotions, c) resilience through gratitude and compassion, d) non-judgmental empathic and compassionate listening, e) social connectedness and f) common humanity. The topic of each weekly coaching session is organized according to these goals. The weekly coaching session is conducted by a skilled expert trainer with groups of about 20 teachers, following a consistent structure. These sessions include sharing personal experiences and difficulties with the Dyad practice in the group, and teacher-lead content presentations to enhance understanding of key aspects of the practice. Participants also say good-bye to their Dyad partner of the past week and get to know their new Dyad partner for the coming week in break-out rooms.

Participants in the EmCo training course complete a daily practice, six times per week, and weekly 1.5-hour online coaching sessions for 10 weeks via a study app.

The daily practice involves a 13-minute structured contemplative dialogue. It starts with a minute of silence, followed by partners taking turns speaking about one difficult situation (2.5 mins) and one situation that incurred gratitude (2.5 mins) in the past 24 hours. While the participants elaborate on each situation, they are asked to focus on the recall of the bodily experience of the emotions generated during the situation. The listener is asked to contemplate his/her partner's experiences in a non-judgmental manner. The session concludes with a final minute of silence. Participants are randomly assigned new partners each week.

Participation Criteria / Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study 18 Years to 65 Years (Adult, Older Adult)

Sexes Eligible for Study All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers Yes

Inclusion Criteria:

Participants will have to meet the following inclusion criteria:

1. between 18- and 65-years old
2. registered residents of Germany
3. currently employed as a teacher in Germany
4. proficient in the German language

Exclusion Criteria:

Participants would be excluded:

1. if they do not have access to the internet or technical equipment necessary.
2. if they have a history of or current psychiatric diagnosis.
3. Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20; Bagby et al., 1994; Brähler et al., 2000; exclude if score greater than 60)
4. Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9; Gräfe et al., 2004; Löwe et al., 2004; exclude if scores greater than 19) low 2004
5. Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7; Löwe et al., 2007; Spitzer et al., 2006; exclude if scores greater than 15)
6. if endorsing suicidality on the PHQ-9.
7. if endorsing personality disorder on the Standardized Assessment of Severity of Personality Disorder Questionnaire (SAPAS; Moran et al., 2003; Söchtig et al., 2012).