Digital Competence, Role Stress and Engagement: Towards positive mental health in Latin American teachers

The appearance of COVID-19 generated a new dynamic in the roles of the university teacher, who has had to rethink their pedagogical practice based on a hybrid education, assuming the commitment of the virtualization of formative processes; This new scenario demanded a deployment of their digital skills that required a readjustment to the work environment in exposure to stressors and psychosocial risk factors that may be affecting the health of the teacher. Therefore, the objective of this study is found in the evaluation of role stress (ambiguity, conflict and overload), engagement (vigor, dedication and absorption) and digital competences, of 300 teachers in six Latin American countries: Peru, Colombia, Chile, Brazil, Mexico and Ecuador. An applied research of a socio-critical paradigm and a mixed approach was developed, with a non-experimental, cross-sectional design, with a correlational and explanatory scope. Three questionnaires (processed through SPSS software) and one open question (processed through Atlas.ti software) were administered. The results indicate a medium level of digital skills, a high level of engagement and a medium level of role stress. Between engagement and role stress, a significant and negative relationship was found, and the statistical model allowed to verify that the higher the level of role stress, the lower the commitment, which is an alert. In turn, a significant positive relationship was found between engagement and digital skills, and between role stress and digital skills, no statistically significant relationship was found. The behavior of the three variables is similar in public and private universities, however, digital skills and engagement are different in men and women, although role stress is very similar between them. The qualitative question was allowed to systematize groups of codes that were grouped into three families (emerging categories), these are: promotion of teaching learning communities, ICT-based strategies for formative evaluation in virtual environments, and positive mental health self-management, This third factor being a dynamic element with a high preponderance in the teachers’ discourse, which is revealed as a real and felt need, and allows us to rethink psychosocial intervention alternatives for the post-pandemic period.