Individual-psychological factors and perception of social support in burnout syndrome
Abstract
Background/Aim. Burnout syndrome is a psychological phenomenon that occurs as a response to chronic interpersonal stressors at work. It is manifested by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and a sense of reduced personal accomplishment. The aim of the study was to examine the correlation between burnout syndrome, individual-psychological factors and social support among special and regular education teachers, as well as to determine differences of burnout syndrome dimensions between groups of teachers with different educational backgrounds. Methods. This non-experimental, cross-sectional correlation study included 317 teachers (122 special education teachers and 38 other teachers in special education for children with intellectual disabilities and 157 teachers from regular primary schools) from Belgrade. Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), Assertiveness Assessment Questionnaire Scale (A-Scale), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSS), Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale (TSES), and Multidimensional Perceived Social Support Scale (MSPSS) were used in the study. Results. The highest prevalence of high levels of burnout were recorded on the emotional exhaustion subscale and were 38% for special education teachers, 47% for other teachers in special education, and 39% for teachers in regular education. The most important predictors of burnout in special education teachers were: for emotional exhaustion (self-esteem, efficiency of class management and seniority); for depersonalization (self-esteem, efficiency of class management and social support); for a sense of lower personal accomplishment (assertiveness, effective student learning and class management). The most important predictors of burnout in regular education teachers were: for emotional exhaustion (assertiveness, effective class management, social support and seniority); for depersonalization (self-esteem, effective student learning and seniority); for a reduced personal accomplishment (self-esteem, effective student learning and social support). Conclusion. Individual-psychological factors have emerged as an important predictor of burnout syndrome in the teaching profession, indicating the importance of examining the impact of these factors in other professions that are characterized by the specific demands for a deeper emotional investment during the work process.
References
Maslach C, Jackson S E, Leiter MP. Maslach burnout inventory: manual. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press; 1996.
Dedić G. Professional burnout. Vojnosanit Pregl 2005; 62(11): 851−5. (Serbian)
WHO. Classification of Diseases. 11th Revision (ICD-11). Genève: World Health Organization; 2019. Available from: https://icd.who.int/browse11/l-m/en#/http%3a%2f%2fid.who.int%2ficd%2fentity%2f129180281
De Stasio S, Fiorilli C, Benevene P, Uusitalo-Malmivaara L, Chiac-chio CD. Burnout in special needs teachers at kindergarten and primary school: investigating the role of personal resources and work wellbeing. Psychol Schools 2017; 54(5): 472−86.
Vojvodić RA, Dedić G, Đukić Dejanović S. Defense mechanisms and quality of life in military personnel with a burnout syn-drome. Vojnosanit Pregl. 2019; 76(3): 298−306.
Brunsting NC, Sreckovic MA, Lane KL. Special education teach-er burnout: A synthesis of research from 1979 to 2013. Educ Treat Children 2014; 37(4): 681–711.
Platsidou M, Agaliotis I. Burnout, job satisfaction and instruc-tional assignment-related sources of stress in Greek special ed-ucation teachers. Int J Disabil Dev Ed 2008; 55(1): 61−76.
Tatar M, Horenczyk G. Diversity–related among teachers. Teach Teach Educ 2003; 19: 397−408.
Zarafshan H, Mohammadi MR, Ahmadi F, Arsalani A. Job burnout among Iranian elementary school teachers of students with autism: a comparative study. Iran J Psychiatry 2013; 8(1): 20−7.
Küçüksüleymanoğlu R. Burnout syndrome levels of teachers in special education schools in Turkey. Int J Spec Educ 2011; 26(1): 53−63.
Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development. Analy-sis of the Quality of Education in Schools and Departments for Education of Children with Disabilities. Belgrade, 2015. Available from: http://defektolozisrbije.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/UNICEF.pdf (Serbian)
Jovanović RV, Krajnović D, Mihajlović G, Marinković V. Factors associated with the burnout syndrome among professionals in pharmaceutical manufacturing industry and marketing. Ra-cionalna terapija 2017; 9(2): 13−22.
Jovanović V, Karić J, Mihajlović G, Džamonja-Ignjatović T, Hinić D. Work-related burnout syndrome in special education teachers working with children with developmental disorders – Possi-ble correlations with some socio-demographic aspects and as-sertiveness. Eur J Spec Needs Educ 2019; 34(5): 692−701.
Bradley JR, Cartwright S. Social support, job stress, health and job satisfaction among nurses in the United Kingdom. Int J Stress Manag 2002; 9(3): 163−82.
Tunde AO, Oladipo OC. Influence of personality and self-esteem on teachers. Proneness to burnout syndrome in Lagos metropolis. Am J Appl Psychol 2013; 1(1): 7−13.
Smetackova I. Self-efficacy and burnout syndrome among teachers. Eur J Soc Behav Sci 2017; 20: 2476−88.
Padillaa AAG, Boniventob CVE, Suarezb BSP. Burnout syn-drome and self-efficacy beliefs in professors. Propós Represent 2017; 5(2): 65−126.
Bataineh O, Alsagheer A. An investigation of social support and burnout among special education teachers in the United Arab Emirates. Int J Spec Educ 2012; 27(2): 5−13.
Kim B, Jee S. Lee J, An S, Lee SM. Relationships between so-cial support and student burnout: A meta-analytic approach. Stress Health 2018; 34(1): 127−34.
Ahtar S. The psychology of kindness, Belgrade: Clio; 2017.
Yilmaz EB. Resilience as a strategy for struggling against chal-lenges related to the nursing profession. Chin Nurs Res 2017; 4: 9−13.
Martínez-Marti ML, Ruch W. Character strengths predict resili-ence over and above positive affect, self-efficacy, optimism, social support, self-esteem, and life satisfaction. J Posit Psy-chol 2017; 12(2): 110−9.
Zwack J, Schweitzer J. If every fifth physician is affected by burnout, what about the other four? Resilience strategies of experienced physicians. Acad Med 2013; 88(3): 382−9.
de Sousa JC, Pinto FR, de Lacerda Leite JC, de Pádua Araújo A, da Silva PMM, de Castro ABC. Relation between burnout syn-drome and resilience in higher teaching activity. Mediterr J Soc Sci 2018; 9(5): 177−86.
Tovilović S, Okanović P, Krstić T. Assertiveness Assessment. In: Biro M, Smederevac S, Novović Z, editors. Evaluation of Psycho-logical and Psychopathological Phenomena Belgrade: Serbian Psychological Society; 2009. p. 63−72. (Serbian)
Rosenberg M. Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton: Princeton University Press; 1965.
Tschannen-Moran M, Woolfolk HA. Teacher efficacy: Capturing and elusive construct. Teach Teach Educ 2001; 17(7): 783−805.
Zimet GD, Dahlem NW, Zimet SG, Farley GK. The Multidi-mensional scale of perceived social support. J Pers Assess 1988; 52(1): 30−41.
Janković S, Ražnatović M, Marinković J, Maksimović N, Janković J, Đikanović B. Relevance of psychosomatic factors in psoriasis: A case-control study. Acta Derm Venereol 2009; 89(4): 364–8.
Milenović M. Study of burnout syndrome in anesthesiologists, working in the tertiary level medical health institutions in Bel-grade [dissertation]. Belgrade: Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade; 2015 (Serbian)
Tabachnick BG, Fidell LS. Using multivariate statistics. 5th ed. Boston: Pearson Education, 2007.
Lau PSY, Yuen M, Chan RMC. Do demographic characteristics make a difference to burnout among Hong Kong secondary school teachers? Soc Indic Res 2005; 71(1−3): 491−516.
Boujut E, Dean A, Grouselle A, Cappe E. Comparative study of teachers in regular schools and teachers in specialized schools in France, working with students with an autism spectrum disorder: Stress, social support, coping strategies and burnout. J Autism Dev Disord 2016; 46(9): 2874−89.
Monsen JJ, Ewing DL, Kwoka M. Teachers’ attitudes towards in-clusion, perceived adequacy of support and classroom learning environment. Learn Environ Res 2014; 17(1): 113–26.
Molero Jurado MDM, Pérez-Fuentes MDC, Atria L, Oropesa Ruiz NF, Gázquez Linares JJ. Burnout, Perceived Efficacy, and Job Satisfaction: Perception of the Educational Context in High School Teachers. Biomed Res Int 2019; 2019: 1021408.
Malinen OP, Savolainen H. The effect of perceived school cli-mate and teacher efficacy in behavior management on job sat-isfaction and burnout: A longitudinal study. Teach Teach Educ 2016; 60: 144–152.
Molero MDM, Pérez-Fuentes MDC, Gázquez JJ. Analysis of the Mediating Role of Self-Efficacy and Self-Esteem on the Ef-fect of Workload on Burnout's Influence on Nurses' Plans to Work Longer. Front Psychol 2018; 9: 2605.
Maslach C, Schaufeli WB. Historical and conceptual develop-ment of burnout. In: Schaufeli WB, Maslach C, Marek T, edi-tors. Professional burnout: Recent developments in theory and research. Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis; 1993. p. 1−16.
Hultell D, Gustavsson P. Factors affecting burnout and work engagement in teachers when entering employment. Work 2011; 40(1): 85−98.
Conley S, You S. Key influences on special education teachers’ intentions to leave: The effects of administrative support and teacher team efficacy in a mediational model. Educ Manag Admin Leader 2017; 45(3): 521−40.
Maslach C, Schaufeli WB, Leiter MP. Job burnout. Annu Rev Psychol 2001; 52: 397−422.
Moffet A, Alexander M, Dummer G. Teaching social skills and assertiveness to students with disabilities. Teach Element Physical Educ 2006; 17(6): 43–7.
Stanetić K, Tešanović G. Influence of age and length of service on the level of stress and burnout syndrome. Med Pregl 2013; 66(3−4): 153−62.
Kozak A, Kersten M, Iler Z, Nienhaus A. Psychosocial work-related predictors and consequences of personal burnout among staff working with people with intellectual disabilities. Res Dev Disabil 2013; 34(1): 102−15.