Do teachers have worse mental health? Review of the existing comparative research and results from the Belgian Health Interview Survey

It is widely believed that teachers have a higher risk of developing mental health problems when compared with other professions. That claim, however, is more often stated as a fact than as the outcome of empirical research. Against that background, we (1) critically review the existing empirical studies on teachers' mental health and (2) use the Belgian Health Interview Survey (n = 7381) to compare teachers with 31 other occupations on five mental health indicators: psychological impairment, somatization, depressive, anxiety, and sleeping disorder. The idea that teachers have worse mental health than other professionals is less conclusive than often assumed. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.