Impact of covid-19 in technostress levels of secondary education teachers in the Valencia region (SPAIN)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic greatly changed schools around the world, making teachers quickly to switch to online learning. This study looks at how the COVID-19 crisis affected stress from using technology among high school teachers in the Valencian region of Spain. And how age, gender, teaching experience and ICT training affected this stress. A quantitative methodology was applied through an online questionnaire completed by 48 teachers presenting different sociodemographic backgrounds. The instrument measured five core dimensions of technostress: technooverload, techno-invasion, techno-complexity, techno-insecurity, and technouncertainty, along the sociodemographic variables. A descriptive analysis was carried out to find the average scores and how much they varied for all technostress questions, then the different groups were compared to find patterns.

The results showed that overall stress from technology was moderate, with having too much to do and technology invading personal life being the biggest problems. Female teachers reported more stress than male teachers. Both newer and more experienced teachers are more vulnerable to technostress, but for different reasons and connected to different technostress dimensions. Teachers with stronger digital competence and experience in online education had lower levels of technostress, indicating that digital self-efficacy acted as a mitigating factor. The findings show that careful planning and support from schools are needed to lower technology stress and help teachers feel better when working with technology. This research helps to understand how moving to digital teaching affects teachers and gives ideas for future teacher training and digital changes.