Socio-psychological competence as a factor in the emergence and overcoming of emotional burnout of teachers of individual educational organizations in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Introduction. The scale of the COVID-19 pandemic and the forced transition to distance learning in this regard, the need to restructure the forms and methods of teaching children with special educational needs in the digital environment, increased cognitive, emotional and communication loads, lack of time to prepare classes contribute to the occurrence of emotional burnout among teachers of individual educational organizations and actualize the problem of studying the influence of their socio-psychological competence on its overcoming. Materials and methods. Teachers (N = 50 females) of the Regional State General Educational Institution "Kursk Boarding School for Children with Disabilities", having professional experience of up to 1 year to 43 years, took part in the study. We used standardized methods for diagnosing emotional burnout, emotional and social intelligence, value orientations of the individual and stress-overcoming behavior, as well as mathematical and statistical methods of data processing: descriptive statistics and regression analysis. Results and discussion. It has been empirically proven that the overempathy of teachers (β = 0,763; p = 0,000), over-responsibility and loyalty (β = 0,465; p = 0,003), the desire for personal success (β = 0,723; p = 0,001), insufficiently developed ability to understand the logic of the development of situations interpersonal interaction and the significance of human behavior in these situations (β = 0,304; p = 0,003), manipulative (β = 1,287; p = 0,000) and aggressive (β = 0,620; p = 0,013) actions, contribute to the appearance of emotional burnout. The aspirations of teachers for social contacts (β = -0,365; p = 0,001), independence of thinking and choice of a method of action β = -0,874; p = 0,000), long-term deliberation and careful weighing of all possible solutions to the problem (β = -0,809; p = 0,000), respect for traditions and moderation (β = -0,882; p = 0,000), – counteract its occurrence ("Index of mental burnout"). Conclusion. It has been established for the first time that the socio-psychological competence of teachers can act not only as a factor in the occurrence, but also as a factor in overcoming emotional burnout, which determines the scientific novelty of the results obtained, as well as the strategy and tactics of corrective and preventive work from the standpoint of the resource approach.