Predicting teacher mental wellbeing: demographics, support and policy

Purpose Teacher wellbeing significantly impacts educators, students and school climates. This study aims to explore relationships between teachers’ demographic characteristics, school contexts, professional support, recent policy shifts (e.g. classroom cell phone bans) and comfort with emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), with their mental wellbeing. Design/methodology/approach US PK-12 teachers (n = 672) were surveyed in March–April 2025, and hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to explore relationships with predictors and teacher mental wellbeing. Findings Findings revealed that stronger administrative, colleague and parental support positively predicted wellbeing. Comfort with AI, identifying as black and teaching in a hybrid or microschool context also correlated positively with teacher mental wellbeing outcomes. Originality/value This study extends the literature by analyzing how teacher demographics, school contexts, professional supports and emerging policies/technologies predict teacher mental wellbeing in a large national sample.