Bienestar emocional y resiliencia en profesionales de la educación social durante el confinamiento por la COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdown measures have impacted on the physical and mental health of the population in different ways. As essential professionals, social educators working in residential care centres for children and young people have had to deal with additional pressures such as lockdown measures and having to continue their work under exceptional circumstances. To assess the impact of lockdown measures on social educators’ emotional well-being and resilience, an ex post facto exploratory study was conducted based on a sample of 72 social educators (30.6% men and 69.4% women) working in residential childhood protection centres in Catalonia. The survey collected data on emotional well-being (PANAS and SWLS) and resilience (RS-14), and also the participants’ sociodemographic details. The results show similar values in relation to emotional well-being and resilience, with no significant differences between sociodemographic categories. A positive correlation was found between affective balance, life satisfaction and resilience. The conclusions of the study highlight the need to support the emotional well-being of social educators by promoting their capacity for resilience, taking into account the already complex task of the socio-educational care of children and adolescents in residential care, and the additional difficulty of lockdown.