Influence of Work-Related and Personal Characteristics on the Burnout Risk among Full- and Part-Time Teachers

Abstract

Teachers are at increased risk of stress-related illnesses and burnout symptoms. Thus, a cross-sectional study involving 6109 full-time and 5905 part-time teachers at upper-level secondary schools examined the influence of presumed work-related and personal characteristics on burnout risk between January and April 2018. Burnout was recorded using the Maslach Burnout Inventory—General Survey (MBI-GS). Work-related characteristics were weekly working hours and work stress, operationalized with the effort-reward imbalance (ERI) model. Overcommitment and the inability to recover were determined as personal characteristics. Multiple linear regression analyses were performed, adjusted for age and gender. Overall, 47% of the teachers reported burnout symptoms and 3% had an indication of burnout. Full-time and part-time teachers did not differ in their risk of burnout. ERI, overcommitment, and inability to recover were identified as predictors of burnout risk (explained variance: 29%), whereby the inability to recover was the strongest predictor. In contrast, weekly working hours, extent of employment, gender and age were not related to the burnout risk. ERI was found in 33%, inability to recover in 36% and overcommitment in 39% of all the teachers studied. In particular, the inability to recover should be taken into account as an early indicator of burnout.

How to Measure the Mental Health of Teachers? Psychometric Properties of the GHQ-12 in a Large Sample of German Teachers

“…In the present study, most of the mean scores were noticeably higher than the mean scores of the representative sample. This was in line with the research that has attested that teachers suffer from diminished mental health, as well as higher risks of psychological diseases and burnout (e.g., [ 18 , 19 ]). In fact, the 252 early childhood teachers in Korea who participated in the study by Lee and Kim [ 51 ] showed much higher item scores than the sample in the current study.…”

“…Studies from Germany have shown that teachers have higher rates of mental and psychosomatic disorders than other professions [ 16 , 17 , 18 ]. Seibt and Kreutzfeld [ 19 ] found that almost 50% of more than 11,000 German teachers in upper-level secondary schools reported burnout symptoms. A national survey in Germany also assessed that only 30% of teachers stay in their job until retirement and that 13% of those teachers who take early retirement leave their work because of psychosomatic disorders [ 20 ].…”

Emotionale Erschöpfung und Berufszufriedenheit von Lehrpersonal während der COVID-19-Pandemie

“…Eine vor der COVID-19-Pandemie durchgeführte Studie kam zu dem Schluss, dass persönliche Merkmale bei der Erklärung des Burn-out-Risikos von Lehrkräften eine größere Rolle spielen als arbeitsbezogene Merkmale. Insbesondere die Unfähigkeit, sich zu erholen, erwies sich als starker Prädiktor, während im Gegensatz dazu die gesamte wöchentliche Arbeitszeit inklusive extracurricularer Aufgaben keinen Erklärbeitrag leistete [ 42 ]. Die vorliegenden Befunde liefern Hinweise darauf, dass arbeitsbezogene Merkmale wie die durch die Maßnahmen zur Eindämmung der Verbreitung von COVID-19 entstandene Mehrarbeit in Zusammenhang mit häufiger wahrgenommenen emotionalen Erschöpfungssymptomen steht.…”

Gender-Specific Aspects of Teachers Regarding Working Behavior and Early Retirement

“…This mental detachment from work during rest periods is seen as a central component of individual recovery ( Sonnentag and Fritz, 2015 ; Stieler et al, 2019 ). It is considered a link between working conditions and stress-related outcomes and has been discussed as an early indicator of exhaustion and burnout ( Wendsche and Lohmann-Haislah, 2017 ; Seibt and Kreuzfeld, 2021 ). A physiological activation which lasts for the duration of working time is seen as a pathomechanism ( Sonnentag and Fritz, 2015 ) which hinders the necessary recovery associated with persistent cognitive processes, such as affective rumination ( Rau and Triemer, 2004 ; Cropley and Zijlstra, 2011 ).…”