Factors of teachers’ resilience to professional burnout

Abstract

Introduction. This article presents the results of an empirical study on professional burnout among teachers in the context of global stress of social origin. The theoretical framework of this study includes the Job Demands–Resources model and R. Lazarus’s concept of cognitive appraisal, both examined within the context of teacher satisfaction with various aspects of their work.

Materials and Methods. The study sample included 76 secondary school teachers from St Petersburg, aged 35 to 55 years. The empirical study employed a set of psychodiagnostic tools: the Professional Burnout Questionnaire (N. E. Vodopyanova, E. S. Starchenkova), the Measurement of Mental Burnout Questionnaire (A. A. Rukavishnikov), the Diagnostics of Emotional Burnout Questionnaire (V. V. Boyko), the Spielberger- Hanin Anxiety Scale, a bespoke questionnaire for assessing job satisfaction, and the Incomplete Sentences method. Mathematical data processing was performed using the Mann–Whitney U test, Spearman’s correlation analysis, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) in the SPSS Statistics 23 software.

Results. Two patterns of professional burnout were identified in the context of emergency remote teaching (based on data from the 2020 sample): the ‘emotional-evaluative’ pattern (in teachers with a subjective-emotional appraisal of the situation) and the ‘organizational-resource’ pattern (in teachers with a rational appraisal of the situation as a perceived danger). The specific nature of emotional burnout was determined in relation to the individual cognitive-appraisal style of perceiving stress of social origin. For the ‘emotional-evaluative’ group, a significant risk factor in the development of the ‘tension’ phase was a lack of recognition from the school administration (r = –0.420, p ≤ 0.05), while the development of the ‘exhaustion’ phase correlated with a decrease in moral satisfaction with work (r = –0.399, p ≤ 0.05). For the ‘organizational-resource’ group, the main predictor of the development of the ‘exhaustion’ phase was suboptimal workload (r = –0.556, p ≤ 0.05). Teachers’ age did not influence their level of professional burnout but did modulate the significance of specific motives (e. g., the use of innovative technologies and an individual approach to children).

Conclusions. The study confirmed the hypothesis that the development of professional burnout in teachers under conditions of global stress of social origin is mediated by their individual cognitive-appraisal style. Based on the findings, recommendations are proposed for implementing targeted psychological burnout prevention programs. Promising directions for future research involve longitudinal studies on the stability of the identified patterns and the testing of differentiated training programs.