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Classrooms as Workplaces: How Student Composition Affects Teacher Health

Author

Listed:
  • Krzysztof Karbownik
  • Helena Svaleryd
  • Jonas Vlachos
  • Xuemeng Wang

Abstract

Work-related burnout and stress-related sickness absence have become increasingly prevalent, but evidence on which workplace features shape workers’ mental health remains limited. Using population-level Swedish register data covering all lower- and upper-secondary teachers from 2006–2024, we show that schools serving more disadvantaged students exhibit substantially higher rates of sickness absence, particularly for stress-related diagnoses. Exploiting within-teacher variation across student cohorts, we separate sorting from exposure and find that a one standard deviation increase in student disadvantage raises overall and stress-related sick leave by 3.6% and 8.7%, respectively. Survey evidence indicates that these effects operate through classroom conditions rather than workload or organizational differences. The findings establish client composition as a distinct and policy-relevant determinant of worker health in contact-intensive occupations.

Suggested Citation

  • Krzysztof Karbownik & Helena Svaleryd & Jonas Vlachos & Xuemeng Wang, 2026. "Classrooms as Workplaces: How Student Composition Affects Teacher Health," NBER Working Papers 34841, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34841
    Note: ED EH LS
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • J63 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Turnover; Vacancies; Layoffs

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