Determining factors affecting lecturers’ anxiety during distance teaching in the pandemic era

Emergency distance teaching was distance learning that applied temporarily for a short period of time and without planning from the start with the aim of keeping the learning process going. The change in face-to-face learning during the COVID-19 pandemic occurred significantly and suddenly, without any prior anticipation, struck various challenges for implementing the learning activities. Lecturers also face new challenges during distance learning, facing new environments due to the application of working from home. Several psychological issues arose, particularly anxiety that might impact a person’s ability to perform at an adequate level. This study aims to see the direct and indirect effects of several determinants like emotion regulation, gender, and academic ranks on anxiety among lecturers in Indonesia, and burnout serves as a mediator. A cross-sectional study was carried out to observe the population of this study during one specific time using The Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25, The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and the Teacher Burnout Scale. 501 participants consisting of 318 female and 183 male lecturers across provinces in Indonesia were included in this study. The convenience sampling technique was applied to select participants based on the criterion of study sampling. The result showed that emotional regulation worked both direct and indirect effects with different impacts. Only expressive suppression strategy significantly both directly and indirectly influenced anxiety. Meanwhile, cognitive reappraisal worked significantly only with an indirect effect mediated by burnout to anxiety. The impact was negative, which means the more lecturers used cognitive reappraisal, the lower the chance they could experience burnout and anxiety. This study also found that academic rank also presented a negative indirect effect on anxiety after being mediated by burnout. On the other hand, anxiety was not significantly influenced by gender. Therefore, this study found a significant contribution of emotion regulation and academic ranks toward anxiety mediated by burnout among lecturers.