Gender differences in burnout: A meta-analysis

This study provides a correlational meta ‐ analysis of 65 independently written or published studies on teacher stress between 1998 and 2003. We measured the relationships between teacher stress and numerous other constructs including coping, burnout, emotional responses, personality mediators, personal support, environmental structure, and background characteristics. A theoretical ‐ empirical model of construct relationships investigated across studies was developed and n = 2,527 correlational effect sizes were used to estimate the empirical relationships between the operationalized theoretical constructs. Results showed that the strongest association of teacher stressors exists with negatively oriented emotional responses confirming the central role of teachers’ coping mechanisms, personality mediators, and burnout potential according to our model of the stress cycle. Key words: stress, coping, teacher burn ‐ out, teacher emotional response Cette recherche fournit une meta ‐ analyse correlationnelle de 65 etudes, redigees ou publiees entre 1998 et 2003, sur le stress chez les enseignants. Les auteurs ont mesure les relations entre le stress des enseignants et de nombreux autres construits, dont l’adaptation au stress, l’epuisement professionnel, les reactions emotionnelles, les personality mediators, le soutien personnel, la structure du milieu et les antecedents. Un modele theorico ‐ empirique des relations entre les construits a ete elabore et des valeurs d’effets correlationnels de n = 2527 ont ete utilisees pour determiner les relations empiriques entre les construits theoriques operationalises. Les resultats demontrent que, pour les facteurs de stress chez les enseignants, l’association la plus importante se trouve du cote des reactions emotionnelles negatives, ce qui confirme le role cle des mecanismes d’adaptation au stress des enseignants, des personality mediators et du potentiel d’epuisement professionnel selon le modele du cycle du stress qui a ete utilise. Mots cles : stress, adaptation au stress, meta ‐ analyse, enseignants.

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A Meta‐analysis for Exploring the Diverse Causes and Effects of Stress in Teachers

Exploring burnout among university faculty: incidence, performance, and demographic issues

This study provides a summary of 45 exploratory and confirmatory factor-analytic studies that examined the internal structure of scores obtained from the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). It highlights characteristics of the studies that account for differences in reporting of the MBI factor structure. This approach includes an examination of the various sample characteristics, forms of the instrument, factor-analytic methods, and the reported factor structure across studies that have attempted to examine the dimensionality of the MBI. This study also investigates the dimensionality of MBI scale scores using meta-analysis. Both descriptive and empirical analysis supported a three-factor model. The pattern of reported dimensions across validation studies should enhance understanding of the structural dimensions that the MBI measures as well as provide a more meaningful interpretation of its test scores.

Factor Structure of Scores From the Maslach Burnout Inventory A Review and Meta-Analysis of 45 Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor-Analytic Studies

The purpose of this study was to explore relations between principals’ self-efficacy, burnout, job satisfaction and principals’ motivation to quit. Principal self-efficacy was measured by a recently developed multidimensional scale called the Norwegian Principal Self-Efficacy Scale. Burnout was measured by a modified version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Job satisfaction and motivation to quit were measured by two scales developed for the purpose of this study, respectively. Participant in the study were 1,818 principals from the population of Norwegian principals. Data was collected by means of an electronic questionnaire. Two structural equation models were tested which specified principal self-efficacy as an exogenous variable and burnout, job satisfaction and motivation to quit as endogenous variables. The data was analyzed by means of SEM analysis for latent variables using the AMOS 18 program. Both models had acceptable fit to data. The results revealed that principal self-efficacy was positively related to job satisfaction and motivation to quit and negatively related to burnout. Burnout and job satisfaction were negatively related. Burnout was positively related to motivation to quit whereas job satisfaction was negatively related. The study highlights important relations between self-efficacy, burnout, job satisfaction and motivation to quit and extends the literature on principal self-efficacy and its relation to other concepts. The results of the study are discussed together with limitations and suggestions for further research.

Principal self-efficacy: relations with burnout, job satisfaction and motivation to quit

This study examined factors relating to levels of job burnout in a sample of 386 New Zealand teachers and principals at 47 Auckland North Shore primary schools. The results confirmed the construct validity of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI; Maslach & Jackson, 1993) and showed that these teachers recorded significantly higher scores on the MBI emotional exhaustion sub-scale than a normative sample of United States teachers. The nature of these differences and implications of the findings for reducing work stress among teachers are discussed. Over the past three decades, increasing attention in the literature has been given to job-related stress and burnout in occupational settings. Indeed, numerous commentators have noted that job stress features significantly in the lives of many working adults (Maslach & Jackson (1993). Freudenberger (1974) and Maslach (1976) coined the term burnout to describe a particular kind of stress response experienced by those working in the helping professions, such as nurses, social workers, police officers and educators. Burnout refers to a state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion resulting from involvement with people in emotionally demanding situations. A number of studies on burnout have focused specifically on the teaching profession due to the fact that this profession is one of the largest and most visible professions in society and a recognition of the extreme demands and pressures which teachers often confront (Whitehead & Ryba, 1995). Recent research has shown that a number of key school culture variables are associated with teacher burnout. These include: (1) increased drive for measurable goal achievement imposed on teachers by school administration; (2) the lack of trust in teachers' professional adequacy; (3) circumscribing school culture; and, (4) disagreeable physical environments to work in (Friedman, 1991). In New Zealand, educational reforms over the past decade have placed increased pressures on schools by requiring them to operate as self-managed organisations working under charter to the Ministry of Education. One effect of this is that school staff often have responsibilities for financial and resource management, as well as for the delivery of the curriculum to a specified standard. Schools are held accountable to the Ministry through a stringent evaluation process administered by the Education Review Office (Taskforce to Review Educational Administration, 1988). n the contex of primary education, another significant contributor to stress and burnout in New Zealand teachers has been the lack of qualified personnel available to teach and the increased workload thus placed on primary teachers. Teacher shortage has been the subject of much media debate concerning the resultant difficulties and personal stress this imposes on the profession. At the time of writing this paper, recruitment efforts have been made to staff primary school positions from overseas, yet many schools have been unable to find enough teachers to fill existing classroom vacancies. Recent studies of teacher stress literature in New Zealand by Manthei and Gilmore (1994) and Whitehead and Ryba (1995) have shown that levels of stress among teachers have increased since the 1980's and that teachers report being under increasingly high stress in their job. Results of these studies indicate that a substantial number of New Zealand teachers may well be experiencing burnout, a more extreme and intense form of stress, which, apart from having severe adverse effects on the teachers themselves, could significantly disadvantage students' growth and learning capacity. Burnout has been defined by Maslach and Jackson (1981,1986) as a tripartite syndrome comprising emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation, and a reduced sense of personal accomplishment. Emotional exhaustion, a core component of burnout, is characterised by fatigue and weariness that develop as emotional energies are drained. …

Anna Whitehead

Papers

Burnout among New Zealand Primary School Teachers