Factors Related to Burnout in North Carolina Public School Teachers

The intent of this study was to propose and test a conceptual model based on Maslach's theory of burnout that would identify factors in teacher working conditions that influenced burnout components in North Carolina public school teachers, as well as to determine current burnout levels for North Carolina public school teachers. Research questions focused on determining current levels of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment of North Carolina public school teachers and determining the predictive ability of the independent variables of social support, classroom climate, and demographic variables. T-tests based on the responses of 307 North Carolina public school teachers, found these teachers to be slightly more emotionally exhausted than teachers in the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) 1996 norms. North Carolina teachers were significantly less depersonalized and had significantly higher scores on personal accomplishment than the teachers in the 1996 MBI norms. Multiple regression analysis found emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment to be significantly predicted by guidance, having access to advice or information within the school; reassurance of worth, having a perception of other's recognition of their competence, skill, and value; and years of teaching experience. Environment, having positive learning environments exist within the school and classroom, significantly predicted depersonalization and personal accomplishment. Order, having orderly classroom and well behaved students, and leadership, having administrators who provide instructional leadership within the school and classroom also significantly predicted depersonalization. Workload, the number of students a teacher worked with daily, was also a significant predictor of depersonalization. The model was moderately effective at predicting emotional exhaustion (21%), depersonalization (23%), and personal accomplishment (23%). Findings, supported by current research, call for greater administrative support and mentoring of teachers, better recognition of teacher competence, creation of positive learning environments, greater teacher retention efforts, and smaller class size. Proactive approaches for preventing teacher burnout are suggested.

Author dc:creator

• Gates, Carmaletta Harris

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Colleen Wiessner, Committee Member
• Lance Fusarelli, Committee Member
• Terrance O'Brien, Committee Member
• Duane Akroyd, Committee Chair

• teaching working conditions
• teaching stress

Statement dc:rights

• I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dis sertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to NC State University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report.

Dc Identifier Other

etd-11012007-194621

OAI record oai:identifier

https://repository.lib.ncsu.edu/server/oai/request?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=dim&identifier=oai%3Arepository.lib.ncsu.edu%3A1840.16%2F4961