Association Between Work - Related Stress and Burnout Among a Group of the Elementary and High School Teachers in Zarrin - Dasht - Fars

Abstract

Background: Teaching at schools are perceived stressful and a number of teachers in many countries leave school due to stressful conditions. Facingstressfulconditionsinthelongtermmaycauseteacherstoexperienceaburnout. Thepurposeofthisstudywasto examinethepredictionofburnoutinprimaryandsecondaryteachersbasedonvariousstressfulconditionsattheschoolworkplace, such as personal stressors, professional distress, discipline and motivation, emotional manifestations, behavioral manifestations, as well as physiological fatigue manifestations. Methods: A total of 107 elementary and high school teachers participated in this study. They were recruited from different schools inZarrin-Dasht-Fars, usingconveniencesampling. Theteacherswerechosenfromatotalof 6schools. Participantscompletedthe teacherstressinventory(TSI)andMaslachBurnoutInventory(MBI).TheTSIconsistsof 49itemsmeasuringstress-relatedproblems. TheMBIcomprisedof 22andassess3dimensionincludingemotionalexhaustion,depersonalization,andlackof asenseof personal achievement. The mean, standard deviations, frequency, percentage, and multiple regression analysis were used to analyze data using SPSS (version 18). Results: Findingsshowedthatthemajorityof teachersexperiencedwork-relatedstress. Thehighestdegreeof stresswasrelatedto professional distress (M = 3.48) followed by personal distress (M = 2.92), discipline as well as motivation (M = 2.28), job involvement (M = 2.22), and time management (M = 2.15). Male teachers experienced more occupational stress than female teachers. Those with moreyearsofexperiencealsohadahigherlevelofburnouts. Findingsindicatedthatage,jobinvolvement,emotionalmanifestation, discipline, and professional distress significantly predicted burnouts among the teachers in the study, while other independent variables such as personal distress and time management did not predict the burnout. Conclusions: This study indicated that a large proportion of the teachers experienced occupational stress. Findings also showed that professional stress or work-related stress was the most important stressors as perceived by the teachers. The findings of this research confirm the significance of teaching related stress as a factor influencing teachers’ well - being.