Document Type : Research Article (s)
Authors
Department of Clinical Psychology, School of Psychology, University of Shiraz, Shiraz, Iran
Abstract
Background: Teaching at schools are perceived stressful and a number of teachers in many countries leave school due to stressful conditions. Facing stressful conditions in the long term may cause teachers to experience a burnout. The purpose of this study was to examine the prediction of burnout in primary and secondary teachers based on various stressful conditions at the school workplace, such as personal stressors, professional distress, discipline and motivation, emotional manifestations, behavioral manifestations, as well as physiological fatigue manifestations.
Methods: A total of 107 elementary and high school teachers participated in this study. They were recruited from different schools in Zarrin - Dasht - Fars, using convenience sampling. The teachers were chosen from a total of 6 schools. Participants completed the teacher stress inventory (TSI) and Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). The TSI consists of 49 items measuring stress - related problems. The MBI comprised of 22 and assess 3 dimension including emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and lack of a sense of personal achievement. The mean, standard deviations, frequency, percentage, and multiple regression analysis were used to analyze data using SPSS (version 18).
Results: Findings showed that the majority of teachers experienced work - related stress. The highest degree of stress was related to professional distress (M = 3.48) followed by personal distress (M = 2.92), discipline as well as motivation (M = 2.28), job involvement (M = 2.22), and time management (M = 2.15). Male teachers experienced more occupational stress than female teachers. Those with more years of experience also had a higher level of burnouts. Findings indicated that age, job involvement, emotional manifestation, discipline, and professional distress significantly predicted burnouts among the teachers in the study, while other independent variables such as personal distress and time management did not predict the burnout.
Conclusions: This study indicated that a large proportion of the teachers experienced occupational stress. Findings also showed that professional stress or work-related stress was the most important stressors as perceived by the teachers. The findings of this research confirm the significance of teaching related stress as a factor influencing teachers’ well - being.
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