Factors of Digital Overload among Russian Teachers

Population and Economics. 2025. Vol. 9. No. 4. P. 71–84.

Lepshokova Z., Iashina A., Chеrnaya A. V.

The digital transformation of education, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has increased teachers’ workload, triggering digital overload, a condition characterized by cognitive exhaustion and impaired work-life balance. The aim of the study was to empirically test a comprehensive model of organizational-environmental and individual-personal factors of teachers’ digital overload and its potential impact on their intention to quit. A sample of 314 teachers (96% women, average age 45) was surveyed using scales assessing the digital climate of the organization, digital competence, digital engagement, digital self-efficacy, digital overload, and intention to quit. Data were analyzed using path analysis, including the assessment of indirect effects. The results confirmed a positive relationship between teachers’ digital overload and their intention to quit. The supportive digital climate of educational organizations, as an organizational-environmental factor, did not significantly affect digital overload, which contrasts with previous studies. By contrast, individual-personal factors emerged more prominently. Teachers’ digital self-efficacy reduced their digital overload, while digital engagement with educational digital resources increased it. Moreover, digital competence and digital engagement reduced overload through higher digital self-efficacy. Interestingly, digital engagement directly increased digital overload but indirectly reduced it through enhanced digital self-efficacy. These findings are discussed in relation to previous research, with emphasis on their practical implications.

Keywords: digital competence, digitalization of education, digital overload, digital self-efficacy, teacher turnover, digital engagement, organizational digital climate