Hoppfullt för hopp : En sambandsstudie om hopp, psykologisk trygghet och arbetsengagemang hos gymnasielärare

Sammanfattning: The statistics on Swedish teachers' occupational health can be described as troubling. Stress-related mental illness is increasing and teachers are suffering from burnout to a greater extent than other occupational groups. This indicates that new perspectives on prevention of burnout are required. This essay examines whether hope and/or psychological safety can predict work engagement. This against the background that work engagement can be seen as the positive antipode of burnout. Our hypothesis was that hope would have a positive correlation to work engagement. We did not state a hypothesis regarding psychological safety as a result of conflicting empirical data. To answer the research question, a survey was sent out to teachers at one Swedish high school. The questionnaire contained validated instruments. The questionnaire was answered by 63 teachers (response rate: 70%). The data obtained was analyzed using SPSS v. 27 and a multiple regression analysis was performed. The results revealed that hope had a significant positive correlation with work engagement while psychological safety did not have that. This indicates that interventions aimed at increasing teachers' hope could be associated with an improvement in their work engagement. We conclude with a discussion of areas where further research is needed and propose that further research should study hope as a resource in the Job Demands-Resources model. In summary, this study contributes with new knowledge about predictors of work engagement for teachers in a Swedish context.