시설형태와 개인적 변인에 따른 보육교사의 정신건강에 관한 연구

A Study on the Mental Health of Child-Care Teachers, According to the Type of Facilities and Individual Variables

The objects of this study are to the characteristics of mental health and problems of child-care teachers, using SCL-90-R, and to prove the difference among them in terms of the type of facilities and individual variables. In order to do that, 115 general child-care institution teachers and 205 special child-care institution teachers, total of 320 teachers were tested by SCL-90-R and the differences between them were proved in terms of the type of facilities, the teaching experience, and the types of licenses. The findings of this study were as follows: First, the special child-care institution teachers showed significantly more negative results than the general child-care institution teachers in the global index, the higher averages in the symptom dimensions, the significant differences in the symptoms of somatization, hostility, and paranoid ideation, and the higher levels of interpersonal sensitivity and depression. Second, as their teaching experience, no overall differences were found between general child-care institution teachers and special child-care institution teachers in mental health. However, teachers who had four to six year experience showed significant differences in the symptoms of somatization, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, and psychoticism in the construction, and the higher level of anxiety, compared with the teachers who had experience for less than three years and over seven years. Third, no significant differences were found between general child-care teachers and special child-care teachers in terms of the types of licenses and the construction. In sum of the results above on the mental health of child-care teachers, the special child-care institution teachers showed higher level of maladaptation in mental health, and the mental health of the child-care teachers showed difference as the type of facilities. As their teaching experience, teachers mental health showed significant difference in symptoms, but no difference was found in the type of licenses. The government should immediately establish reasonable reward systems and stricter license criteria with the improvement of job condition and the consideration of academic experience of the child-care teachers in order to form a societal climate that has more respectable youths who prefer being child-care teachers as lifetime jobs. Finally, individual teachers effort to have positive thinking is necessary to improve the mental health of child-care teachers. In addition, the help of institutional presidents and of experienced child-care teachers may be more effective, who empathize, regard, and support the difficulty of child-care teachers.