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چکیده
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Abstract Job stress threatens teachers’ well-being and health. Identifying physiological and psycho-cognitive factors that underline job stress is crucial for teachers’ emotional and mental health as well as students’ learning. This study examined the cycle of stress biomarkers (salivary cortisol and alpha amylase) over the course of teaching as well as the associations between stress biomarkers and psycho-cognitive factors (self-regulation, mental health, and positive/negative emotions) among Iranian English teachers. 59 English teachers from two foreign language institutes in Bushehr province, southern Iran, volunteered to participate in this study. On the first stage of the study, the participants’ saliva samples were collected three times over the course of a usual teaching day (before class, during class, and after class). Salivary alpha amylase and cortisol levels were analyzed in the biomarker Sina Lab in Bushehr using commercially available and research-based kinetic reaction (sAA) (Pars Test) and immunoassay (cortisol) kits (IBL). On the second stage of study, self-regulation, mental health, and positive/negative emotions were measured through questionnaires. Using SPSS software, we analyzed the data drawing on separate repeated measures analyses of covariance (RMANCOVAs), partial correlations, and linear regression. The results showed a significant pattern for alpha amylase while cortisol did not show any significant change over the process of teaching. No significant relationships were found between cortisol sampling times and those of alpha amylase. It was also found that none of self-report measures of self-regulation, mental health, and positive/negative emotions had any relationships with cortisol and sAA and they were not proper variables to predict biomarkers’ release pattern. Keywords: stress, EFL teachers, salivary cortisol, salivary alpha amylase, self-regulation, mental health, positive/negative emotions
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