Background: Teaching work is stressful, moreover during the pandemic teachers’ stress might have been intensified by distance education as well as by limited access to social support, which functions as a buffer in experiencing stress. The aim of the research was to investigate the relation between distance education and teachers’ well-being, and their close relations and other social relations during the first two waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: The research was conducted in two stages on 285 Polish primary and secondary school teachers who were recruited by means of the chain referral method. The following measures were used: The Depression Anxiety & Stress Scales-21, Berlin Social Support Scales, The Relationship Satisfaction Scale and The Injustice Experience Questionnaire. Results: The teachers experienced at least mild levels of stress, anxiety and depression, both during the first as well as the second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland. It has been confirmed that there is a negative relation between relationship quality change and social relations quality change, and stress, anxiety and depression. The variables taken into consideration in the research have provided the explanation for the variation of stress—from 6% in the first stage of the research to 47% in the second stage; for the variation of anxiety—from 21% to 31%; and for the variation of depression—from 12% to 46%, respectively. Conclusions: The research results show that due to distance work the distinction between professional work and family life might have been blurred, and as a consequence teachers’ well-being could have been worsened. The isolation put on to stop the spreading of the virus might have contributed to changes in social relations, in close relations in particular, and at the same time negatively influenced teachers’ abilities to effectively cope with the crisis situations.

Although spirituality has been considered a protective factor against shopping addiction, the mechanisms involved in this relationship are still poorly recognized. The present study aims to test the association of daily spiritual experiences, self-efficacy, and gender with shopping addiction. The sample consisted of 430 young adults (275 women and 155 men), with a mean age of 20.44 (SD = 1.70). The Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale, the General Self-Efficacy Scale, and the Bergen Shopping Addiction Scale were used to measure the study variables. The results showed that: (1) Daily spiritual experiences had a direct negative effect on shopping addiction; (2) daily spiritual experiences were positively related to self-efficacy, thought the effect was moderated by gender; (3) self-efficacy negatively correlated with a shopping addiction; and (4) the indirect effect of daily spiritual experiences on shopping addiction through self-efficacy was significant for women but insignificant for men. The findings confirm that spirituality protects young adults against developing a shopping addiction. They also suggest that when introducing spiritual issues into shopping addiction prevention or treatment programs, the gender-specific effects of spirituality on shopping addiction via self-efficacy should be considered to adequately utilize young women’s and men’s spiritual resources.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether spirituality at work moderates the direct and indirect (through burnout) effects of quantitative and emotional job demands on turnover intention among teachers. The sample consisted of 952 Polish primary and secondary school teachers. Burnout mediated the relationship between both types of job demands and turnover intention. In the model with quantitative job demands as an independent variable, spirituality at work moderated the second stage path of the indirect effect, i.e., the relationship between burnout and turnover intention (b = −0.022; SE = 0.004; p < 0.001; β = −0.14). In the model with emotional job demands as an independent variable, spirituality at work moderated the first and second stage paths of the indirect effect, i.e., the relationship between emotional job demands and burnout (b = −0.001; SE = 0.001; p = 0.032; β = −0.05) and the relationship between burnout and turnover intention (b = −0.020; SE = 0.004; p < 0.001; β = −0.14). In both models, the indirect effect of job demands on turnover intention through burnout weakened as spirituality at work increased. The results of the study support the inclusion of spirituality at work as a subcategory of personal resources in studies using the job demands-resources model.

Background: The aim of this study was to explore potential associations between compliance with the traditional male role norms and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms.Methods: The study was conducted on 135 male Polish firefighters. The study used the Impact Event Scale-Revised, the Relations/Social Support Scale and the Male Role Norms Scale.Results: The study revealed that the firefighters that suffered from probable PTSD (over 34% of all the respondents) seemed to comply with the male role norms more strictly than those without PTSD. The reverse was found to be true for the perceived social support. Social status norms and toughness norms understood as expectations that men should achieve high status by means of successful career, etc., and be tough and resilient at all costs to be perceived as “manly” were found to be positively associated with the development of PTSD, while in the case of perceived social support, a negative association was confirmed. The results might yield important clinical implications—traditional male role norms pertaining to toughness and social status might be associated with the increase in chances of developing PTSD after the exposure to potentially traumatic events.Conclusions: Firefighting as a stereotypically masculine occupation may be associated with the reinforcement of stereotypically masculine behaviors, which in turn is associated with a decreased ability to cope with potentially traumatic stimuli and favoring maladaptive behaviors. The results might suggest that addressing the beliefs about masculinity during psychological intervention in the case of PTSD might be beneficial especially among such masculinized groups as firefighters. The main limitations of the study are: participation of those more eager to participate and reveal personal information; the recall and report bias; the relatively small sample size; sociodemographic data omissions; the study group almost exclusively consisting of firefighters from large urban centers.

Police officers’ work involves the exposition to traumatogenic stimuli. The aim of the research is to investigate potential associations between post-traumatic stress disorder and the traditional masculinity norms and social support. Three questionnaires were used: the Impact of Event Scale-Revised adapted by Juczyński and Ogińska-Bulik (2009), the Social Relations Scale (Skarżyńska 2002), and the Male Role Norms Scale translated by the authors of this paper. The sample comprised 111 male active service members of the Polish Police. The analysis shows statistically significant, mildly negative associations between post-traumatic stress disorder symptomatology variables and social relations/support (− .312 to − .386), and mild-to-moderate positive associations between the traditional male role norms and post-traumatic stress disorder symptomatology variables (.361–.506). The intergroup differences between the police officers that probably meet the PTSD criteria and those that do not meet the criteria were mainly observed in complying with the traditional masculinity norms, in which the police officers with probable post-traumatic stress disorder had higher results than those without it; the reverse was observed in the case of social relations/support. Traditional masculinity norms, length of service, number of types of traumatic events, social relations/support, and age have proved to be significant independent predictors of post-traumatic stress disorder (β = − .38–β = .49). However, in the multivariate regression, only social status norms, age, social relations/support, and number of types of traumatic events proved to be significant predictors of post-traumatic stress disorder (β = − 26 to .40), accounting for 45% of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms.

The aim of the research is to investigate the relation between distance education and teachers’ well-being, and their close relations and other social relations during the first and second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.