It's not just primary school children showing post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms following the Christchurch earthquake, it's their teachers too.

A University of Otago study has found school teachers were among the majority of frontline workers with PTSD.

Local research done in Canterbury last year revealed up to 80 per cent of Christchurch five-year-olds displayed symptoms.

Professor David McBride says teachers consistently had high scores for emotional exhaustion, anxiety and social dysfunction.

Researchers have passed on their findings to the teaching unions.