%0 Report
        %A Karbownik, Krzysztof
%A Svaleryd, Helena
%A Vlachos, Jonas
%A Wang, Xuemeng
        %T Classrooms as Workplaces: How Student Composition Affects Teacher Health
        %D 2026
        %8 2026 Feb
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 18404
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp18404
        %X 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.
        %K student composition
%K mental health
%K contact-intensive occupations