The Use of Multidimensional Statistical Analysis Methods in the Burnout Study of Teachers and Lecturers at Universities

Abstract

Research background: The study was conducted and based on the project The assessment of mental condition, financed by the Ministry of Health as part of the National Health Program for 2016–2020 (operational objective 3: Prevention of mental health problems and improvement of mental well-being of society). The article focuses on a group of teachers and university lecturers from eight voivodeships selected for the study, whereas burnout was selected from the areas of mental disorders.Purpose: The main objective of the study was to identify the regularities in the relationship between the level of professional burnout and selected demographic characteristics in the group of teachers and university lecturers. Additionally, the spatial diversity of the percentage of respondents diagnosed with occupational burnout was examined.Research methodology: Two methods from the multi-dimensional statistical analysis were used: a classification tree analysis, and a correspondence analysis.Results: The methods used allowed to classify the studied professional group in terms of the degree of occupational burnout. The results obtained using both the classification trees and multidimensional correspondence analysis allowed the identification of similar regularities regarding the impact of demographic variables on the level of occupational burnout.Novelty: The application of multidimensional statistical analysis methods to study mental health based on individual, unique data from eight Polish voivodeships.