Prevalence of psychiatric symptoms among elementary school teachers in Shahrekord, western part of Iran

The effect of teachers on the learners is considered undeniable in educational research. The importance of teachers’ mental health is very obvious because a healthy teacher means safe education and safe education guarantees a safe society.
 
Materials and Methods:Theaim of this study was investigating the prevalence of psychiatric symptoms among elementary school teachers in Shahrekord in 2005-2006 academic years. 1008 teachers from 139 elementary schools (districts 1 and 2) in Shahrekord made the population of this descriptive, cross-sectional study. Seventy percents of teachers answered the questions and 705 teachers participated in this research. The required data gathered via Scl-90-R standardized questionnaire and personal and social features questionnaire. Descriptive and analytical data analysis (t-test, analysis variants, post hoc and regression) were done through SPSS.
 
Results: Some degrees of mental disorder were seen in 27.4% of teachers. The highest of prevalence was related to somatization disorder (74.9%) and the lowest was phobia (20.6%). There was no significant relationship between prevalence of mental disorders and marital status (P=0.7) and teaching experience (P=0.77). A significant reverse relationship was observed between prevalence of psychiatric symptoms, income, and degree of education (P<0.001).
 
Conclusion: The results showed that the prevalence of mental disorder was high among the subjects of the study.