Professional Burnout among Public School Teachers

Abstract

This was a questionnaire study designed to address the problem of professional burnout among elementary, junior high, and high school teachers in a large metropolitan public school system. Subjects were 939 teachers in the San Diego Unified School District who responded to a new questionnaire that assessed various aspects of teachers and their jobs including demographic variables, teaching climate, job stress, and dissatisfaction, psychological effects of burnout, and related physical symptoms. The questionnaires were distributed and collected by the San Diego Teachers Association. Results indicated that there is wide variation in the degree of burnout teachers experience. No differences were found in susceptibility to burnout due to demographic variables such as age, sex, grade level, subject taught, or years of experience. Certain characteristics of teaching climate associated with high and low levels of burnout were identified. Those specific stressors that most affected teachers and those that were most highly associated with burnout were delineated. Additional analyses clarified the psychological and physical effects of burnout for the sample of teachers studied. Burnout as a useful construct for studying individuals in large organizations was discussed and suggestions were offered for future research possibilities.