Session Information
26 SES 07 B, Educational Leadership in Crisis: Perspectives and Directions
Paper Session
Contribution
In addition to physical health, mental health is an essential part of life. According to the World Health Organisation (2005), mental health is an essential dimension of a comprehensive understanding of health. Recent evidence suggests that mental stress and strain at work is a public health challenge that needs to be taken seriously. It is not only associated with high levels of suffering on the part of those affected, but also with a burden on the social system. As well as the obvious costs associated with absenteeism, there are also costs that are less obvious, such as presenteeism, lost productivity, problems associated with low levels of employee engagement and problems associated with a negative corporate culture (Iyarn, 2020).
This challenge is a national and global issue. For example, Bryan, Bryce & Roberts (2021) report from a longitudinal perspective that changing mental health has more than three times the effect on absenteeism as changing physical health in the UK. As well, comprehensive studies have been carried out for Germany. Based on an analysis of company absenteeism by the major statutory health insurers, the Federal Chamber of Psychotherapists (BPtK, 2018) concludes that the number of insured persons in Germany who were incapacitated by mental illness within one year increased from 3.3% to 5.5% between 2000 and 2017. Brandt (2021) supports these findings and reports that in Germany about 265 days of incapacity to work per 100 insured persons can be attributed to mental health problems. However, certain occupational groups appear to be at a higher risk of being reported to the employer as incapacitated due to mental illness.
Using data from the BIBB/IAB structural survey, Hasselhorn and Nübling (2004) were able to show that the risk of experiencing work-related psychological exhaustion is particularly high for teachers, comparing 67 occupational groups. Data from the BIBB/BAuA employment survey of 2006 and 2012 also point to a high level of mental exhaustion among teachers, although this level is just as high for members of other social professions (Cramer, Merk & Wesselborg, 2014). The results of a recent German study show that 45 per cent of the school principals and school board members surveyed find it difficult to relax at the end of the working day and a third of them often/always feel mentally exhausted (Dadaczynski, Okan & Messer, 2021).
In addition, studies by the Association of the Bavarian Economy [Vereinigung der Bayerischen Wirtschaft e.V.] (2021) show that educational staff are a particular risk group for mental illness and are particularly affected by the risk of burnout syndrome. As mentioned above, the symptoms of mental illnesses, such as the burnout syndrome, are manifested at the individual level, at the interpersonal level and at the institutional level. They are not only affective and cognitive, but also manifest themselves on a physiological level and affect the motivation and behaviour of those affected. This is why school leaders have a special role to play in their leadership function. Maslach and Leiter (2017) support this assumption, highlighting that employees working in the education system are at increased risk of burnout in terms of lower self-efficacy, emotional exhaustion and lower identification with work.
Empirical research on the mental health of school leaders is still in its infancy, although there is now considerable evidence on the mental health of teachers. Based on evidence-based knowledge, assumptions can be derived to fill the research gap. The aim of the scientific presentation is to answer the question of the extent to which an imbalance between one's own work commitment and the lack of compensation influences possible burnout.
Method
The quantitative analyses will examine the relationship between the Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI) model, originally developed by Siegrist (1996a) as an explanatory approach for negative health effects of working conditions, and selected items from the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) (Maslach et al., 1996). The ERI model has been a useful tool for the analysis of work-related mental health conditions. The basic assumption of the model is based on the principle of social reciprocity. Occupational effort is part of a socially organised exchange, which is followed by occupational rewards. If there is an imbalance between the effort and the reward at work, this can lead to a crisis of job satisfaction with stress that promotes mental illness (Siegrist, 1996b). Research has shown that work stress, as measured by the ERI, is a good predictor of mental illnesses such as depression (Siegrist & Dragano, 2008). A linear regression model will be successively built with the inclusion of further variables. The analysed data come from the study Leadership in German Schools (LineS2020), which was conducted at the Universities of Tübingen and Lüneburg and at the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland. The sample, which is representative for Germany, included a total number of 405 randomly selected principals of general education schools. They were interviewed by means of an online questionnaire from September to November 2019 by forsa GmbH. In the analyses, the connection between the Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI) model as an explanatory approach for the negative effects of working conditions on health (example item: "When I think about all my achievements and efforts, I consider the recognition I receive to be appropriate") and Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) items, such as "Since becoming a principal, I have become more indifferent towards people". (Maslach, Jackson & Leiter, 1996). Following the descriptive analyses, a multiple regression model will be successively built with the inclusion of further variables. This model will take into account further background characteristics such as age, gender and length of service in the school service. This is followed by confirmatory checks of the constructs (ERI and burnout syndrome) and correlation analyses in MPlus. Missing values are accounted for using full information maximum likelihood (FIML).
Expected Outcomes
A total of 405 principals (female=55.8%; male=43.7%; diverse=0.5%) from schools in Germany were surveyed. Of the respondents, 11.6 % were aged between 30 and 44, 56 % were aged between 54 and 59 and just under a third were aged over 60. Of the schools that were administered, 92.3 per cent were state schools and 7.7 per cent were maintained schools. More than half of the schools (57.9 per cent) are primary schools. Grammar schools are represented in the sample by just under 15%, other secondary schools make up around a third. Just under 15% of headteachers answered in the affirmative when asked whether their school was located in a 'social hotspot'. Over half (52.8%) of respondents reported working between 41-51 hours in an average school week (including overtime), and over a quarter (28.1%) reported working more than 50 hours. Indicators of a high workload are both the type and location of the school and the working hours of the headteachers. Preliminary analyses of the seven ERI items in a two-step analysis (Siegrist, Starke, Chandola, Godin, Marmot, Niedhammer & Peter, 2004) show that about a quarter of those surveyed perceive more reward than effort and are not threatened by a gratification crisis. However, perceiving more effort than reward, 73.3% of respondents are at risk. In 1.5% of participants, effort and reward were in equilibrium. There were no gender differences in the analysis of variance. An additional test for effort and reward did not show any differences between the sexes either. High factor loadings (>.63) were found for all three items in an exploratory factor analysis of the burnout scale.
References
Brandt, M. (2021). Kranke Psyche: Höchststand bei Fehltagen im Jahr 2020. Access 15. September 2022 from https://de.statista.com/infografik/18813/krankschreibungen-wegen-psychischer-erkrankungen-in-deutschland/. Bryan, M.E., Bryce, A.M., & Roberts, J. (2021). The effect of mental and physical health problems on sickness absence. The European Journal of Health Economics, 22, 1519–1533. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10198-021-01379-w. Bundes Psychotherapeuten Kammer (2018). Die längsten Fehlzeiten weiterhin durch psychische Erkrankungen. BPtK-Auswertung 2018 „Langfristige Entwicklung Arbeitsunfähigkeit“. https://www.bptk.de/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/20190523_pm_bptk_Die-la%CC%88ngsten-Fehlzeiten-weiterhin-durch-psychische-Erkrankungen.pdf. Cramer, C., Merk, S., & Wesselborg, B. (2014). Psychische Erschöpfung von Lehrerinnen und Lehrern. Repräsentativer Berufsgruppenvergleich unter Kontrolle berufsspezifischer Merkmale. Lehrerbildung auf dem Prüfstand, 7, 138-156. Dadaczynski, K., Okan, O., & Messer, M. (2021). Belastungen und Beanspruchungen von Schulleitungen während der Corona-Pandemie. Ergebnisse einer Online-Befragung in vier Bundesländern. Public Health Zentrum Fulda (PHZF) an der Hochschule Fulda, Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für Gesundheitskompetenzforschung (IZGK) an der Universität Bielefeld & Pflegewissenschaft II an der Universität Trier. https://doi.org/10.4119/unibi/2957528. Hasselhorn, H.-M. & Nübling, M. (2004). Arbeitsbedingte psychische Erschöpfung bei Erwerbstätigen in Deutschland. Arbeitsmed. Sozialmed. Umweltmed., 39, 568-576. Iyarn (2020). The Iceberg of Mental Health and Wellbeing: Challenges for Modern Workplaces. Access 31.01.2023 from https://iyarn.com/blog/iceberg-workplace-mental-heath-wellbeing/. Maslach, C., Jackson, S. E., & Leiter, M. P. (1996). Maslach Burnout Inventory. Manual. Consulting Psychologists Press. Maslach, C., & Leiter, M. P. (2017). Understanding burnout. In: D. Cooper & J. Quick, J. (Eds.). The handbook of stress and health: a guide to research and practice (pp 36–56). Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/ 10.1002/9781118993811.ch3. Siegrist, J. (1996a). Adverse health effects of high-effort/low-reward conditions. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 1(1), 27–41. Siegrist, J. (1996b). Soziale Krisen und Gesundheit. Eine Theorie der Gesundheitsförderung am Beispiel von Herz-Kreislauf-Risiken im Erwerbsleben. Hogrefe. Siegrist, J. & Dragano, N. (2008). Psychosoziale Belastungen und Erkrankungsrisiken im Erwerbsleben. Befunde aus internationalen Studien zum Anforderungs-Kontroll-Modell und zum Modell beruflicher Gratifikationskrisen. Bundesgesundheitsblatt-Gesundheitsforschung-Gesundheitsschutz, 51(3), 305–312. Siegrist, J., Starke, D., Chandola, T., Godin, I., Marmot, M., Niedhammer, I., & Peter, R. (2004). The measurement of effort–reward imbalance at work: European comparisons. Social Science & Medicine, 58, 1483–1499. Vereinigung der Bayerischen Wirtschaft e. V. (Eds.). (2021). Führung, Leitung, Governance: Verantwortung im Bildungssystem. Waxmann. World Health Organization (2005). Mental health: facing the challenges, building solutions: report from the WHO European Ministerial Conference. WHO Regional Office for Europe.
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