This theory, purported by Bakker and Demerouti (2017), explains and emphasizes the role of job demands, job resources, and personal resources in predicting how employees work at their job. These resources can come in many forms, and are based in many external factors, like psychological factors, or physical/somatic factors. According to this theory, Job resources should lead to positive outcomes, while demands lead to negative outcomes in the employees. 

The theory also emphasizes that there are two interaction processes taking place: high job resources buffer any aggravating effects of high job demands on negative outcomes, and vice versa with job demands boosting the beneficial impact of job resources on positive outcomes. Essentially, if both demands and resources are high, negative outcomes can be offset.

In this study, the JD-R theory was used as follows:
- autonomy-supportive leadership = job resource
- autonomy-thwarting leadership = job demand


Job-Demands Resource Theory (JD-R)

The study takes its theoretical framework from a previous study (Bakker and Demerouti, 2017), using a theory called Job demands-resources theory.

University of California, Davis

This study sought to understand and elaborate on teachers' work experiences during COVID-19 in Australia. This study examined teachers' experience with COVID-19 and online learning through two leadership factors, as well as workplace buoyancy, to see how these factors contributed to the three dependent variables: 

- somatic burden
- stress related to change
- emotional exhaustion

The two leadership factors can be defined as follows:
- autonomy-supportive leadership: leadership practices that promote teachers to be self-empowered and take initiative
- autonomy-thwarting leadership: leadership practices that focus on exerting control and reducing self-determination

Additionally, the study examined workplace buoyancy, defined as the ability to overcome substantial challenges at the workplace.


Introduction to COVID-19 and Somatic Burden Study

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2332858420986187

COVID-19 and Teachers’ Somatic Burden, Stress, and Emotional Exhaustion: Examining the Role of Principal Leadership and Workplace Buoyancy (Reference)

Hypothesized Model for COVID-19 and Somatic Burden Study

In the initial stages of the pandemic, from January - March 2020, as the rest of the world was shutting down, Australia was managing quite well with few COVID-19 cases. However, around May 2020, Australia too shut down its’ schools, and placed the country on lockdown. Additionally, though like the rest of the world, Australia was impacted by COVID-19, the study claims that due to the fact that Australia was not as direly impacted by cases and deaths like the United States or United Kingdom, Australians did not have as much mental stress as Americans or British people. 

Due to the fact that Australia has both private and public schools, closures varied based on whether the school fell under government jurisdiction or not. The study points this out as a factor taken into consideration, as they asked the teachers that they used for their data sample whether they were teaching completely remotely, half-remotely, in person, or remote as usual, meaning that they were already teaching remotely before the pandemic. 

COVID-19 and School in Australia

Theoretical Framework for COVID-19 and Somatic Burden Study

The sample of the study was made up of 325 teachers from eight states/territories in Australia. The breakdown is as follows:

Personal Data:
- 67% were female, 31% male
- 2% nonbinary/used different terms than cis-terms to describe gender
- average age = 39 years old (SD = 12)
- average experience teaching = 12 years (SD = 11)

Workplace/Environment:
- primary school teachers (48%)
- secondary school teachers (39%)
- both primary and secondary school teachers (13%)
- public/government schools (64%)
- Catholic schools (15%)
- independent schools (20%)

SES:
- low SES school (9%)
- below average SES school (12%)
- average SES school (48%)
- above average SES school (25%)
- high SES school (5%)

Location:
- inner city (13%)
- suburban (61%)
- rural (23%)
- remote (3%)

All data was collected from May 13 and May 25, 2020 during which various districts were in lockdown. Most people at this time were teaching fully remotely at this time. 

Data was collected through Qualtrics.


Methods of COVID-19 and Somatic Burden Study


The main findings of the study were that autonomy-supportive leadership was associated with greater workplace buoyancy, and lower somatic burden, emotional exhaustion, and stress, and was indirectly associated with the three outcomes via workplace buoyancy. 

Autonomy-thwarting leadership was positively associated with emotional exhaustion. 

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