Depressed school teachers may have a negative influence on some students' academic performance, especially when it comes to math, a new US study has found.
Researchers found that third-grade teachers who were struggling with symptoms of depression - such as poor appetite, restless sleep, crying spells and feeling like a failure - were generally less likely to create and maintain a high-quality classroom environment for their students compared with teachers who had fewer signs of depression.
The research also showed that students who had weak math skills tended to be more affected by their teachers' depressive symptoms and the poorer-quality classroom environment.
In contrast, the performance of their classmates with stronger math skills was not affected by the learning environment, 'Live Science' reported.
"Our study suggests that depression in teachers is not only a personal struggle, but could potentially impact the learning experiences of students," said study researcher Leigh McLean, a doctoral student in psychology at Arizona State University.
In the study, researchers looked at 27 teachers and 523 third-graders at eight schools in a Florida school district.
The teachers filled out a questionnaire evaluating their risk for depression based on their symptoms, and trained observers used videotapes of the teachers in action to rate the quality of the learning environment inside each classroom.
The findings showed that teachers in the study with more symptoms of depression had a negative influence on students having trouble with math, but a similar effect was not seen in children's reading skills.
The findings are published in the journal Child Development.
