Burnout syndrome in two different school systems: A comparison between Italian and Swiss teachers

Author(s):

Caterina Fiorilli(presenting / submitting)Piera Gabola(presenting)Alessandro Pepe(presenting)Nicolas Meylan(presenting)Denise Curchod-Ruedi(presenting)Pierre-André Doudin(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

08. Research on Health Education

Format:

Poster

Session Information

08 SES 05.5 PS, General Poster Session

General Poster Session

Time:

2014-09-03

12:30-14:00

Room:

Poster Area E (in front of B001-B003)

Chair:

Contribution

Teaching is profession with a high risk of burnout (Schaufeli, Leiter, & Maslach, 2008). The principal risks factors for teachers come from job demands to face with students' learning difficulties, aggressive behaviour, ambiguity and conflict amongst colleagues, problematic relationships with parents, time pressures and large classes (Chan, 2003). School-related events require teachers' ability to control their emotional intensity at all times, treat pupils with warmth and compassion and suppress any feelings of impatience or anger (Beatty, 2000). Recently Chang (2013) examined teachers’ unpleasant emotions elicited by appraisal of students' misbehavior and observed that the intensity of negative emotions increased teachers' emotional exhaustion. Therefore, teachers' effort to maintain negative emotions at low level without risks for their educational role likely affects their general well-being. Teachers' social support was remarkably considered a protective factor able to safeguard them from burnout risk and increase the school quality of life (Leung & Lee, 2006; Pomaki, DeLongis, Frey, Short, & Woehrle, 2010; Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004). Recently, Doudin and Curchod (2008) have found that the satisfaction with support received was a buffer against burnout independently on internal or external school support received. More specifically finding showed a positive correlation between dissatisfaction with social support received and teachers' emotional exhaustion.

The current research focused on the risk and protective factors on burnout syndrome taking into account the role of cultural context. According to cross-cultural studies teachers burnout syndrome depends onuniversal and culture-specific variables(e.g. Clunies-Ross, Little, & Kienhuis, 2008; Hastings & Bham, 2003).Although several studies was addressed to teachers’ burnout in different cultures, many investigated only one culture while very few studies examined burnout cross-culturally. The purpose of this current study was attempted to explore the importance of a cross-cultural perspective. We hypothesized that emotional intensity anddissatisfaction with social support affected teachers later burnoutsyndrome. Additionally, we expected to find the same predictive model for all measures of burnout in Italian and Swiss teachers groups.

Method

Participants Both samples were drawn from similar urban settings within the two countries to ensure homogeneity about social-demographic variables. The Italian sample consisted of 140 regular teachers (82% female) recruited from five primary public schools. Teachers ranged from 25 to 60. The Swiss sample consisted of 135 regular teachers (87% female) from different primary schools of Vaud region. Swiss teachers ranged from 20 to 60 years. Instruments Three self-reports questionnaires were used to assess respectively, teacher burnout, emotional intensity and social support. Three closed-questions were used to evaluate social-demographic variables, such as gender and age. Teachers burnout was evaluated by means of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey (MBI-ES, Maslach, Jackson, & Leiter, 1996), composed by three sub-scales: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal accomplishment. Teachers' emotional intensity was measured via Emotional Competence Questionnaire (ECQ, Doudin and Curchod-Ruedi, 2010). Finally, teachers' dissatisfaction with support received was assessed by means of the Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ, Doudin et al., 2011). While teachers burnout was evaluated in the adapted version for each language, a back-to-back translation procedure (French vs. Italian) was used for emotional intensity and social support questionnaires, as recommended for cross-cultural studies (Schaffer & Riordan, 2003). Plan of analysis Three separate regression models were performed to analyse teachers' emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal accomplishment separately. Analysis have been controlled for teachers' nationality, age and gender.

Expected Outcomes

Partially in line with our hypothesis emotional intensity played a significant predictive role on emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment of burnout measure, whereas dissatisfaction with support received affected all measures of teachers burnout. Teachers' gender and nationality affected differently on their burnout level, conversely age didn't play significant effect. Italian and Swiss teachers' emotional exhaustion were predicted by their emotional intensity and dissatisfaction with support (ΔR2 = .013, F2,227 = 1.779, p = .171). With regard to teachers' depersonalization our results revealed a good explanation model for both Italian and Swiss teachers by means of the predictive role of dissatisfaction with support received and teacher' gender (ΔR2 = .034, F1,233 = 8.96, p < .001). Additionally, we found that teachers emotional intensity and dissatisfaction with support received have played a significant role to reduce professional accomplishment. Without gender effects as well as belonging country (ΔR2 = .074, F1,230 = 18.75, p < .001). Summarizing our findings Italian and Swiss teachers seam to be more similar than different in terms of interaction patterns affecting burnout syndrome. More specifically, if emotional exhaustion have shown some differences on the impact power of emotional intensity and dissatisfaction with support received, no difference were emerged to explain depersonalization and personal accomplishment. The buffer role of the satisfactory support was particularly evident for all burnout measures in both teachers sub-groups. Nonetheless it is widely documented in the literature that teachers require a set of personal psychological resources to cope with the heavy emotional demands from school context it appeared insufficient without adequate support. As yet, our findings claimed that more important than internal or external resources available to teachers was to receive satisfying aids from others. In terms of schools organization system, thus means engaging in the quality of the support offered to their workers.

References

Beatty, B. (2000). The emotions of educations of educational leadership: breaking the silence. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 3(4), 331-335. Chan, D. W. (2003). Dimensions of emotional intelligence and their relationships with social coping among gifted adolescents in Hong Kong. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 32, 409-418. Chang, M. L. (2013). Toward a theoretical model to understand teacher emotions and teacher burnout in the context of student misbehaviour: Appraisal, regulation and coping. Motivation and Emotion. Advance online publication. Clunies-Ross, P., Little, E., & Kienhuis, M. (2008). Self-reported and actual use of proactive and reactive classroom management strategies and their relationship with teacher stress and student behaviour. Education Psychology, 28(6), 693-710. Doudin, P.-A., & Curchod-Ruedi, D. (2008). Burnout de l’enseignant: facteurs de risque et facteurs de protection. Revue Pédagogique Hep, 9, 5-8. Doudin, P.-A., & Curchod-Ruedi, D. (2010). La compréhension des émotions et pratiques de réintégration. In P.A. Doudin & L. Lafortune (Eds.), Intervenir auprès des élèves ayant besoins particuliers: quelle formation à l'enseignement? (pp. 145-163). Québec: Presse de l'Université du Québec. Doudin, P.-A., Curchod-Ruedi, D. & Moreau, J. (2011). Le soutien social comme acteur de protection de l’épuisement des enseignants. In P.-A . Doudin, D. Curchod-Ruedi, L. Lafortune & N. Lafranchise (Eds.), La santé psychosociale des enseignants et des enseignantes (pp. 12-37). Québec: PUQ. Maslach, C., Jackson, S.E., & Leiter, M.P. (1996). Maslach Burnout Inventory Manual (3rd ed.). Mountain View, California: CPP, Inc. Pas, E., Bradshaw, C. P., & Hershfeldt, P. A. (2012). Teacher- and school-level predictors of teacher efficacy and burnout: Identifying potential areas of support. Journal of School Psychology, 50(1), 129-145. Pomaki, G., DeLongis, A., Frey, D., Short, K., & Woehrle, T. (2010). When the doing gets tough: Direct, buffering and indirect effects of social support in new teachers’ turnover intention. Teaching & Teacher Education, 26, 1340-1346. Scaffer, B. S., & Riodan, C. M. (2003). A review of cross-cultural methodologies for organizational research: A best practices approach. Organizational Research Method, 6, 169-215. Schaufeli, W.B., Leiter, M.P., & Maslach, C. (2008). Burnout: 35 years of research and practice. Career Development International, 14, 204-220. Sutton, R.E., & Harper, E.M. (2009). Teachers’ emotion regulation. In L.J. Saha & A. G. Dworkin (Eds.), The new international handbook of teachers and teaching (pp. 389-401). New York: Springer.

Author Information

Caterina Fiorilli (presenting / submitting)

University of LUMSA

Human Science

Rome

Piera Gabola (presenting)

University of Neuchâtel

Institut de psychologie et éducation Université de Neuchâte

Neuchatel

Alessandro Pepe (presenting)

University of Milano - Bicocca

Psychology

Milano

Nicolas Meylan (presenting)

University of Teacher Education; University of Lausanne

Denise Curchod-Ruedi (presenting)

University of Teacher Education

Pierre-André Doudin (presenting)