Personal predictors of emotional burnout among secondary school teachers

Abstract

Introduction. Today, in addition to studying the occurrence of the syndrome in the field of professional activity, the attention of researchers is also directed to the internal factors leading to the syndrome of emotional burnout. As such, researchers of emotional burnout identify anxiety, low self-esteem, a tendency to perfectionism, low stress tolerance, external locus of control, and non-adaptive coping strategies. Research method. Psychological testing using the methods of K. Maslach and V.V. Boyko to identify emotional burnout, S. Muddy's hardiness test, Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (TMAS), Hewitt-Flett's Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale. The method of statistical processing is regression analysis. An empirical study was conducted on a sample of secondary school teachers in Gorno-Altaisk (N=80). Results. It was found that most of the study participants have an average or high level of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a reduction in professionalism, while the burnout index in terms of average values refers to a moderate level. In accordance with the results of the method of TMAS, most respondents (70%) have an average level of anxiety. On the hardiness scale, participants generally scored above average, indicating that they could bounce back from adverse situations. Based on the results of the regression analysis, the following personal predictors of emotional burnout of secondary school teachers were identified: a high level of personal anxiety and a low level of hardiness. The tendency to perfectionism showed the presence of influence on only one component of emotional burnout – the reduction of professionalism. Conclusions and prospects. The conducted theoretical and empirical analysis showed the significance of the study of personal predictors of emotional burnout among representatives of socionomic professions both from a scientific point of view (it was found that the predictors of emotional burnout in medical workers and secondary school teachers have their own specifics, which may be a consequence of the content of professional activity), and with practical, since the prevention of burnout in the workplace will save staff and increase labor productivity.