About

Christopher J. McCarthy is a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, with a primary focus on stress and coping within educational contexts. His research is conducted through the Coping and Stress in Education (CASE) Lab, which explores the intersection of health, psychology, and education. The lab's work emphasizes understanding the stress experienced by teachers and administrators, and developing strategies to help them cope and thrive in their roles. Dr. McCarthy's research includes studies on educator stress and wellness, group interventions to promote teacher well-being, and preventive coping mechanisms, such as the use of psychological assets measured by the Preventive Resources Inventory. He has a strong professional commitment to career development, both in practice and its impact on psychological well-being. His affiliations include the Association for Specialists in Group Work, the American Educational Research Association, and the Trauma, Stress, Anxiety, and Resilience Society. Dr. McCarthy holds a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Georgia State University, an M.A. in Counseling from Boston College, and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Virginia. His contributions include leadership in research on stress and coping, recognition through awards such as the Lifetime Career Award from the Stress, Trauma, Anxiety, and Resilience Society, and active involvement in teaching courses related to career development and counseling skills.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Pedagogy
• Psychology
• Political Science
• Social Science
• Medical education
• Medicine
• Virology
• Clinical psychology
• Social psychology
• Psychotherapist
• Psychiatry
• Engineering
• Applied psychology
• Environmental health

Selected publications

• Firefighters and Problem-Solvers: A Comparative Case Study of Elementary School Principals' Divergent Perspectives on Managing Stress

  European Journal of Educational Management · 2026-03-15

  articleOpen access

  Quality principal leadership plays a critical role in shaping teacher working conditions and overall school climate, yet principals themselves experience considerable occupational stress. In the United States, ongoing systemic challenges compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated ongoing stressors and introduced novel stressors among school leaders. This comparative case study explored differences in elementary school principals’ perceptions of occupational stress in schools with both higher and lower concentrations of teachers at risk for stress. Semi-structured interviews from six elementary school principals were analyzed using qualitative thematic analysis, and explored how principals in each context described stressors shaping their work experiences during the 2021-2022 school year. Findings revealed that while both groups of principals experienced significant occupational stressors during and after the pandemic, the type, intensity, and emotional impact of those stressors diverged significantly. Principals in schools with higher levels of teacher stress described high emotional demand from students and teachers, perceived lack of district support, and acute accountability pressures. Principals in schools with lower teacher stress identified more manageable challenges and a stronger sense of efficacy and collaboration. Implications for principal support, stress prevention, and equity in educational leadership are discussed.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Correction: Understanding teacher professional intentions: the role of teacher psychological resources, appraisals, and job satisfaction

  Social Psychology of Education · 2025-03-24 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Teacher Appraisals of Occupational Wellbeing Before and After COVID-19

  Journal of Education Society & Multiculturalism · 2025-12-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract This study examined teacher’s occupational health across four waves of a district-wide public school climate survey: 2019-2020 (Pre-COVID), 2021-2022 (COVID), 2022-2023 (COVID Recovery), and 2023-2024 (Post-COVID). Each wave included approximately 1800 - 1900 teachers and response rates ranged from 60 - 80%. Multi-level modeling examined teachers’ self-reports of stress vulnerability, instructional support, and job satisfaction at level one across each wave. Level two was modeled at the school level and included principal turnover and free/reduced-price lunch percentage for the 47 schools in each wave (31 elementary, 10 middle, and 6 high schools). There were statistically significant increases in teacher stress vulnerability, relative to the Pre-COVID wave, for both the COVID Recovery and Post COVID waves. Instructional Support and Job Satisfaction scores, however, remained relatively stable until the Post-COVID wave, when an increase in Instructional Support was found. Most of the variance for each outcome measure, across waves and using the total sample, was at level one, although substantial variability existed between schools at level two. Free and reduced-price lunch percentage and principal turnover were associated with lower Instructional Support and Job Satisfaction. Teacher’s stress vulnerability was associated with both Instructional Support and Job Satisfaction across school levels.

  PublisherDOI

• Operating Without a Playbook: Principals’ Stress and Coping Emerging from COVID-19

  Leadership and Policy in Schools · 2025-10-08 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Challenges in Nurses’ Use of Behaviour Change Techniques in Chronic Pain Management

  Pain Research and Management · 2025-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Objective: Patient adherence to treatment recommendations is less than optimal within chronic pain management. Behaviour change techniques (BCTs) and frameworks can be used to maximise engagement with desired behaviours but are also underused. This study sought the perceptions of nurses to explore the perceived barriers and facilitators to utilising BCTs in clinical practice in chronic pain settings. Methods: Eight qualified nurses participated in semi‐structured interviews. Reflexive thematic analysis was conducted to understand barriers and facilitators to the use of BCTs in practice. Results: Three themes were identified (1) behaviour change embedded in current practice, (2) complexities in chronic pain as barriers in implementing behaviour change and (3) from experience to expertise: training and supervision needs. Findings suggest that nurses engage in some BCTs (17 were discussed across all interviews), without explicit knowledge of specific BCTs and how to use them. The use of BCTs is restricted by patients’ medical complexities, including mental health comorbidities, unhelpful biomedical beliefs about pain and opioid reliance. Furthermore, the opportunity to effectively utilise BCTs is impeded by a lack of training and clinical supervision. Conclusions: Improving nurses’ capabilities by enhancing BCT training and clinical supervision is required. Furthermore, organisational change is recommended to create the opportunity for nurses to effectively utilise BCTs. Specifically, organisations should devote necessary resources, backed by effective implementation strategies, to enhance such engagement.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Social Support and Covid-19

  2025-07-20

  book-chapter

  Functioning as frontline workers, teachers have experienced heightened stress during the COVID-19 pandemic, which presents consequences for their well-being and job sustainability. Prior research demonstrates teacher wellbeing can be facilitated by both vertical support (school leadership) and horizontal support (colleagues), but the current U.S. educational landscape includes new stressors threatening the bounds of old support systems. The current study extends prior research on teacher support by conducting a modified grounded theory to explore the mechanisms underlying the ways in which teachers experienced social support during the COVID-19 pandemic and how this resource supports them in a high-stress career. Forty teachers from a stratified random sample of 300 public school teachers in a large southwestern district were recruited, resulting in 23 participants of varying vulnerability to stress based on a prior phase of the study. Two researchers analyzed transcriptions from six, one-hour focus groups, with an audit trail, peer debriefing, and other triangulation techniques employed. Three thematic outcomes illustrated how social support—specifically mentoring and gratitude—was helpful for teachers at the individual level (affective support), the classroom level (instructional support), and the building level (community support). The unique combinations of these varying levels of support ultimately provided sustenance for teachers who were working in an ever-changing and challenging environment during COVID-19. Such findings have implications for school and district leaders, as they reveal the importance of building multi-tiered systems of support in which teachers have opportunities to positively interact with their professional community.

  PublisherDOI

• A student like me: Black student achievement moderates the relationship between teacher-student racial matching and the occupational wellbeing of Black teachers in the United States

  Teaching and Teacher Education · 2025-03-22 · 1 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Barriers and Facilitators Towards Physiotherapists' Use of Behaviour Change Techniques (BCTs) to Improve Patients' Adherence to Treatment

  Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice · 2025-12-01

  articleOpen access

  PURPOSE: Patient adherence to physiotherapy treatment recommendations is less than optimal. This can lead to poor outcomes across a range of clinical and service level measures including patient satisfaction, long-term morbidity and increased prevalence of long-term conditions. Physiotherapists have been found to only use a small number of behaviour change techniques (BCTs) in consultations, despite evidence that these can help to improve outcomes in a range of domains including adherence. The study aimed to explore physiotherapists perceived barriers and facilitators to utilising BCTs in clinical practice. METHODS: Fourteen qualified physiotherapists recruited from a higher education institution and a national healthcare provider participated in semi-structured interviews and reflexive thematic analysis was conducted thereafter. RESULTS: Three key themes were identified: (1) A Lack of Training and Support; (2) Organisational Culture and Practices; (3) Individual Differences During the Consultation, which had two subthemes: (i) Patient Attitudes and Expectations; (ii) Clinician Attitudes and Approach. Findings suggest that physiotherapists believe that their use of BCTs is restricted by a lack of capability, due to limited training. Furthermore, the opportunity to effectively utilise BCTs is restricted by organisational environment, resources and effective clinical supervision. CONCLUSIONS: Improving physiotherapists' capabilities by enhancing BCT training and psychology led clinical supervision is required. Furthermore, organisational change is recommended to create the opportunity for clinicians to effectively utilise BCTs. Specifically, organisations should devote necessary resources, backed by effective implementation strategies, to enhance such opportunity.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A Rapid Scoping Review of Collegiate Students’ Stress, Coping, and Help-Seeking During Covid-19

  2024-09-19

  book-chapter

  On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” and characterized it as a pandemic less than two months later (World Health Organization, n.d.). The resulting containment measures led to a financial crisis, emotional isolation, and challenges in the job market, further exacerbating mental health issues, including stress (Brooks et al., 2020; Salari et al., 2020; Sen-Crowe et al., 2020). Our research team conducted a rapid scoping review using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) to identify themes, concepts, and knowledge gaps in student stress, coping, and help-seeking during the pandemic (Tricco et al., 2018). The impacts of COVID-19 on students were evident across seven themes, particularly affecting under-represented and minoritized individuals. This review also addresses strategies for educators and administrators that may improve the management of these stressful events moving forward, limitations of our study, and future research directions. On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern,” and less than two months later characterized the outbreak as a pandemic (World Health Organization, 2020). As of May 3, 2023, COVID has caused over 6 million deaths globally (WHO, n.d.). Moreover, related containment interventions like lockdowns, quarantine, and social distancing resulted in financial crisis, the physical and emotional absence of family, friends, and formal support systems, and difficulties navigating the job market, which all significantly exacerbated people’s mental health problems, including overall stress (Brooks et al., 2020; Salari et al., 2020; Sen-Crowe et al., 2020). Symptoms of stress-related mental disorders increased markedly across all countries and many researchers and healthcare providers feel that it will take years to understand the pandemic’s full impact on individual’s mental health (Daniali et al., 2023; Łaskawiec et al., 2022). The COVID-19 pandemic generated considerable research on college student’s mental health, and in order to better understand overall findings, a rapid scoping review was conducted with the following study objectives in mind: (1) conduct a systematic search of the published literature regarding college student stress and coping, particularly help-seeking (2) better understand the characteristics and themes of these articles, (3) examine the gaps in this field of literature, and (4) propose future directions for research specific to student’s stress and coping during and following a traumatic event, like COVID-19. This literature review will discuss the definition of stress, particularly college students’ stress, and the types of coping and help-seeking students engage in, especially during the pandemic. This review will also expand on why our research team chose a rapid scoping review as the methodology for this chapter to accommodate the quick timeframe of the manuscript as well as address gaps in the literature for a rapid, and much needed growing field of research.

  PublisherDOI

• Understanding teacher professional intentions: the role of teacher psychological resources, appraisals, and job satisfaction

  Social Psychology of Education · 2024-12-13 · 3 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Richard G. Lambert

  University of North Carolina at Charlotte

  42 shared

• Paul G. Fitchett

  Auburn University

  16 shared

• Catherine J. Brack

  11 shared

• Rachel T. Fouladi

  Simon Fraser University

  10 shared

• Kristen C. Mosley

  Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board

  10 shared

• Maytal Eyal

  9 shared

• Greg Brack

  Georgia State University

  8 shared

• Devika Dibya Choudhuri

  7 shared

Labs

• Coping and Stress in Education (CASE) LabPI

Awards & honors

• Lifetime Career Award , Stress, Trauma, Anxiety, and Resilie…
• Fellow , Association for Specialists in Group Work (2021)
• President's Award , Association for Specialists in Group Wor…
• Outstanding Article Award , Association for Specialists in G…
• Lawrence and Stel Marie Lowman Fellow , The University of Te…