Personal variables that buffer against the development of burnout in public school teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

Teaching is one of the most emotionally exhausting careers due to high demands and workload, insufficient resources and supports, and student behavior management (Day et al., 2007;Demerouti et al., 2001;Trait, 2008). Increased stress related to teaching makes teachers highly susceptible to developing burnout, a psychological state characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a reduced sense of accomplishment (Maslach et al., 2001). Burnout in teachers is associated with lower levels of student achievement as students are directly impacted by the environment around them, including teacher well-being (Yavuz, 2009). With the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting schools since March of 2020, teachers have been asked to adapt to challenging circumstances in their professional and personal lives. Research is limited on how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted teachers' psychological well-being and the development of burnout in this population (Sokal et al., 2020). Variables have been found in the literature that protect against burnout, and some are explicitly associated with teachers. Optimism, intrinsic motivation, and social support are variables that have been found to protect against burnout in the teaching profession (Hassan et al., 2017;Otero-Lopez et al., 2014;Tornuk & Gunes, 2020). In the current study, the researcher aims to expand on research regarding burnout in teachers related to the COVID-19 pandemic and whether personal variables that have previously served as a buffer against burnout have remained protective in the pandemic. Support was provided for the relationship between burnout and the resiliency variables intrinsic motivation, optimism, and social support. Within this sample, individuals who presented with greater levels of these resiliency variables were less likely to demonstrate high levels of burnout. Perceived stress was also examined and accounted for the most variance in burnout in this sample, suggesting that stress levels were high in the sample. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)