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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health

Sec. Occupational Health and Safety

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1631347

This article is part of the Research TopicEducator Burnout – Improving the Understanding of Challenges and Advancing Insights for Interventions and PreventionView all 9 articles

The Role of Ethical Climate on Teachers' Well-Being: relationship with psychophysical well-being and general health

Provisionally accepted
  • 1Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Rome, Rome, Italy
  • 2Libera Università Maria SS. Assunta, Rome, Lazio, Italy
  • 3Saint Camillus International University of Health and Medical Sciences, Rome, Lazio, Italy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Introduction: Previous studies have highlighted that the dissonance between workplace and personal ethics can lead to poorer mental health for employees. However, studies addressing the relationship between teachers' well-being and workplace ethics are scarce. This study aims to investigate the relationship between ethical climate and mental and physical health outcomes in teachers. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 255 Italian teachers (88.63% female; mean age = 47.09 years). The study assessed the relationships among workplace ethics, general and mental health, and daytime sleepiness by descriptive analysis and multiple logistic regression models. Results: The study involved 255 Italian teachers recruited from schools of various grades (Female=88.63%; Mean age=47.09; SD=±10.55). Most participants showcased "Good" (50.59%) or "Excellent" (42.75%) workplace ethics; 30.79% of participants reported anxiety, 27.06% depression, and 24.31% stress. Only 7.84% of participants scored over the cut-off for the general health questionnaire, and 26.67% reported daytime sleepiness. Using the logistic regression models, a significant correlation for workplace ethics was detected with the DASS-21 stress (p=0.002) and depression (p=0.011) subscales. Conclusions: The ethical climate in educational settings influences teachers' mental health, particularly by reducing stress and depression. Enhancing the ethical environment in educational organizations could improve teacher well-being.

Keywords: Ethical climate, Anxiety, Depression, general health, teachers

Received: 19 May 2025; Accepted: 23 Sep 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Borrelli, Angelini, SANTORO, Rossi, Gualano, Moscato and Fiorilli. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Maria Francesca Rossi, mariafrancesca.rossi01@icatt.it

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