Teachers’ burnout and work demands: Comparison over time and to other public professionals.

Teachers are among professionals exposed to burnout because of stressful working conditions. Previous results on burnout among compulsory school teachers in Iceland have shown that between the years 1999 and 2005 symptoms captured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI-ES) did not change extensively....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Netla
Main Authors: Einarsdóttir, Sif, Erlingsdóttir, Regína Bergdís, Björnsdóttir, Amalía, Snorradóttir, Ásta
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:Icelandic
Published: Menntavísindasvið Háskóla Íslands 2020
Subjects:
Burnout
compulsory school teachers
work environment
health and well-being
exhaustion disorder
public professionals
kulnun
grunnskólakennarar
starfsaðstæður
heilsa og vellíðan
örmögnunarröskun
opinberir sérfræðingar
Iceland
Online Access:https://ojs.hi.is/netla/article/view/3057
https://doi.org/10.24270/netla.2019.12
Description
Summary:Teachers are among professionals exposed to burnout because of stressful working conditions. Previous results on burnout among compulsory school teachers in Iceland have shown that between the years 1999 and 2005 symptoms captured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI-ES) did not change extensively. Research indicates that the health and well-being of Icelandic compulsory teachers has deteriorated since the financial crisis in 2008. Financial cutbacks have resulted in lack of resources to tackle urgent challenges in schools such as meeting the needs of diverse student background, including behavioural and educational problems and multicultural issues. A shortage of compulsory–school teachers is a problem in Iceland and the number of teachers without certification working in compulsory schools is increasing. It is important in the light of the economic crisis and changes that have taken place in the school system and the foreseen shortage of compulsory teachers to evaluate burnout again as was the aim of this study. In addition, teachers’ work environment has yet to be evaluated using known models for comparison to other professions.In this study, burnout is captured using the MBI-ES as was done in previous studies in Iceland (Anna Þóra Baldursdóttir & Valgerður Magnúsdóttir, 2007). Furthermore, the Karolinska Exhaustion Disorder Scale (KEDS) and JDRS (Job DemandsResources Scale) measuring work environment factors were used. Participants were 515 and the response rate was 38%. Of participants 85% were female.Symptoms of emotional exhaustion on the MBE-ES scale had increased since before the economic crisis (from 1.5 to 2.4 on the original 6-point scale) while depersonalization and personal accomplishment had not. The teachers’ averages on emotional exhaustion (M = 2.4) and personal accomplishment (M = 4.6) were high but low for depersonalization (M = 0.7), indicating that symptoms of burnout are mainly related to emotional exhaustion. On the KEDS scale, 42% of the participants met the criteria for exhaustion ...

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