Examining internal and external job resources in child welfare: Protecting against caseworker burnout

Given intense job demands, it is not surprising that job burnout is a consistent threat to the well-being and retention of the child welfare workforce. Guided by central postulates of the Job Demands and Resources (JD-R) model which suggests that job burnout develops because of experiences of high work demands coupled with low resources in the workplace, we applied a conceptual model of job burnout (client and work related) that accounts for both internal and external resources available to child welfare workers. Findings among child welfare caseworkers from three states (N = 1917) indicate that job demands (stress and time pressure) were positively related to client- and work-related burnout. Additionally, both internal and external resources moderated the relationships between job demands and client- and work-related burnout. Study findings have workforce management implications in the child welfare sector, including the role resources might play in mitigating the negative impact of job demands on burnout in the child welfare workforce.     

The role of student burnout in predicting future burnout: exploring the transition from university to the workplace

Burnout is a significant problem in the workplace and recent research suggests burnout is also a growing concern for students. This study aimed to explore the transition from study to work, including exploring the impact of student burnout on work burnout. Australian health profession students (T1, n?=?86; T2, n?=?86; T3, n?=?57) from the disciplines of nursing, psychology, occupational therapy and social work were followed from their final year at university into their first two years at work. An online questionnaire which included measures of exhaustion, cynicism, professional efficacy, mental health, neuroticism, study/job demands and resources was administered at three time points, one year apart. Contrary to the hypotheses, burnout was higher in study than work for all dimensions of burnout. Study exhaustion and cynicism predicted work exhaustion and cynicism, respectively. These results demonstrate the importance of early intervention for burnout in university settings, both to decrease student burnout and to prevent future work burnout.     

Item analysis of Guglielmino's self‐directed learning readiness scale

The present study was designed to ascertain the effect of a sabbatical year on teachers’ professional identity, feelings of job burnout and intentions to leave either their workplace or the profession. The sample was drawn from those members of the Israel primary school teacher population who were eligible to be on a sabbatical during the 1991‐92 school year. The subjects filled out survey questionnaires before and after taking their sabbaticals. The findings indicate that a sabbatical in conjunction with a professional training programme had great impact on strengthening the teachers’ professional image, and reducing their feelings of job burnout and intentions to leave their workplace or profession.     

Emotional labour,burnout and job satisfaction in UK teachers: the role of workplace social support

Although teaching has been described as a profoundly emotional activity, little is known about the emotional demands faced by teachers or how this impacts on their well-being. This study examined relationships between ‘emotional labour’, burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and personal accomplishment) and job satisfaction in a sample of UK teachers. Also examined was whether workplace social support moderated any relationships found between emotional labour and strain. The relationship between job experience and emotional labour was also investigated. Six hundred and twenty-eight teachers working in secondary schools in the UK completed questionnaires. Significant associations were observed between emotional labour and all outcomes, with a positive relationship found between emotional labour and personal accomplishment. Some evidence was found that social support mitigates the negative impact of emotional demands on emotional exhaustion, feelings of personal accomplishment and job satisfaction. More experienced teachers reported higher levels of emotional labour. Findings highlight the need for teacher-training programmes to raise awareness of the emotional demands of teaching and consider ways to enhance emotion regulation skills in experienced as well as recently qualified staff.     

A call to action: exploring and responding to educational developers’ workplace burnout and well-being in higher education

ABSTRACT

There is a gap in research exploring stress, burnout, and well-being within the context of educational development. The purpose of this study was to examine the concepts of burnout and workplace well-being among educational developers across the international landscape. Thematic analysis from the survey responses (n = 210) revealed characteristics around four themes that both enhanced or hindered participants’ sense of well-being: a) colleagues, b) manager/director, c) institution/senior administration, and d) workplace. Our findings highlight the need to further amplify conversations related to burnout, as well as examine and promote workplace well-being for educational developers.     

Job demands and resources as antecedents of university teachers’ exhaustion,engagement and job satisfaction

Abstract

This study aims at testing the application of the job demands-resources model on university teachers in mainland China. It investigates the relationship between the job characteristics of university teaching and teachers’ well-being. Based on the analyses of a sample of 2,758 university teachers, the results of structural equation modelling support the health impairment and motivational processes suggested by the model. Specifically, job demands consisting of teaching demands, teaching-research conflict and new challenges reduced university teachers’ job satisfaction through the mediation of emotional exhaustion; job resources comprising teaching resources, social support and administrative support increased university teachers’ job satisfaction through the mediation of work engagement. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

The experience of burnout among English language teachers in Iran: self and other determinants

Burnout in teachers is an important concern since it adversely impacts their instruction as well as their psychological, mental, and physical health. The present study examined the levels of burnout (i.e. emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment) experienced by Iranian English language teachers. Specifically, the relationships of participants’ gender, workplace context, grade level taught, and teaching experience to their burnout were investigated. Data were collected from 40 teachers using the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Overall, findings revealed that English teachers (N = 40) were experiencing high levels of reduced personal accomplishment (M = 18.72) and emotional exhaustion (M = 17.80). Results of one-way ANOVA showed significant differences among English language teachers with respect to burnout subscales. Significant correlations were found between burnout, workplace context, and grade level taught. A number of helpful suggestions for programs and individuals involved in relieving stress and burnout among teachers are presented.     

Integrating the light and dark sides of student engagement using person-oriented and situation-specific approaches

This study contributes to the research on student engagement in three ways: 1) by combining questionnaire and situational measures of engagement using the Experience Sampling Method (ESM), 2) by applying a demands-resources model to describe the positive and negative aspects of student engagement, and 3) by adopting a person-oriented approach to describe subgroups of students with different profiles of engagement and burnout symptoms. Two studies were conducted: sample one comprised 255 US high school students (45.5% female, 9th – 12th grade), and sample two 188 Finnish comprehensive and high school students (59.6% female, 9th to 10th grade). Latent profile analyses (LPA) of person-level measures of schoolwork engagement and burnout in the US and Finland revealed four profiles: 1) engaged, 2) engaged-exhausted, 3) moderately burned out (risk for burnout) and 4) burned out. These four groups were identified in both samples, but differed in their prevalence. The groups differed in their state experiences of situational demands, resources and engagement at school. Engagement is not wholly an experience of ‘flourishing’: some students experienced elevated levels of both engagement and burnout. Thus, positive and negative aspects of engagement should be studied and modeled together.     

The logic of success: the relation between complex problem-solving skills and university achievement

This article deals with the demands that plagiarism places on academic communities, and with the resources staff possess in dealing with these demands. It is suggested that plagiarism ought to be placed in the context of network of intertwining communities (scholarly, pedagogical and administrative), to which participants are engaged to a different extent. The relationship to the ethical issue of plagiarism is related to the subject’s engagement in these communities. The article examines the way teachers deal with plagiarism from the point of view of work engagement and work-related wellbeing. In particular, we analyse job demands created by episodes of dealing with plagiarism as well as job resources teachers possess that aid them in coping with these demands. We used thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews of teachers in two universities. Our results show that the demands fall on five thematic categories: 1. rupture in the personal pedagogical relationship, 2. challenge on the supervisory “gatekeeping” responsibility; 3. a breach of the “everyday normality”; 4. ambivalence in explaining plagiarism and 5. the strain of performing the act of accusation. A key job demand in dealing with plagiarism is that teachers must balance both rule-ethical and care-ethical orientations in their reactions and actions. The resources teachers draw upon when dealing with these demands are: 1) dialogue and reflection in collegial dialogue 2) support from superiors and administration 3) shared protocols, procedures and plagiarism detection software. Our analysis shows that there are various demands that make dealing with plagiarism a strenuous task, but university environments also provide teachers with resources to cope with them.     

Passion and motivation for studying: predicting academic engagement and burnout in university students

Research on the dualistic model of passion has investigated harmonious and obsessive passion in many domains. However, few studies have investigated passion for studying and the role passion for studying plays in student engagement and well‐being. The present study investigated the relationships between harmonious and obsessive passion for studying and academic engagement (vigour, dedication and absorption) and burnout (exhaustion, cynicism and inefficacy) in 105 university students, controlling for the effects of autonomous and controlled motivation. Both harmonious and obsessive passion explained variance in academic engagement and burnout beyond autonomous and controlled motivation: harmonious passion predicted higher dedication and lower cynicism, obsessive passion predicted higher absorption, and both harmonious and obsessive passion predicted higher vigour and lower inefficacy. The findings suggest that passion for studying explains individual differences in students’ academic engagement and burnout beyond autonomous and controlled motivation and thus deserves more attention from educational psychology.     

Burnout and teacher self-efficacy among teachers working in special education institutions in Turkey

The aim of this paper was to investigate the relationship between teacher self-efficacy and burnout among special education school teachers in Turkey. One hundred and eighteen teachers completed the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale and the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Teachers belonged to the psychological counselling and guidance programme, primary education, special education programme, programme in education of students with mental impairment, programme in education of students with hearing impairment, programme in education of students with visual impairment, music education and art education. Findings showed that there were significant relationships between teacher self-efficacy and burnout. Also, significant differences were found between genders and branches in terms of burnout and teacher self-efficacy. Indices of structural equation modelling indicated that domains of burnout were strongly predicted by self-efficacy. Findings highlight the importance of self-efficacy beliefs in special education staff’s level of emotional involvement, sense of accomplishment and engagement.     

The mediating role of workplace social support on the relationship between trait emotional intelligence and teacher burnout

This study investigated the mediating effect of workplace social support on the relationship between trait emotional intelligence and teacher burnout among 307 Chinese middle school teachers. Structural equation modelling revealed a satisfactory fit between the data and our theoretical model. Workplace social support partially mediated the relationship between trait emotional intelligence and teacher burnout. Neither gender nor age moderated the relationship between trait emotional intelligence and teacher burnout. Emotional intelligence and workplace social support can protect teachers from teacher burnout. Thus, providing effective emotional intelligence training and creating supportive workplace conditions requires increased attention from education administrators.     

Occupational Well-being Among University Faculty: A Job Demands-Resources Model

The effects of changing academic environments on faculty well-being have attracted considerable research attention. However, few studies have examined the multifaceted relationships between the academic work environment and the multiple dimensions of faculty well-being using a comprehensive theoretical framework. To address this gap, this study implemented the Job Demands-Resources (JDR) model to investigate how job demands/resources in the academic environment interact with multiple dimensions of faculty well-being. The study participants were 1389 full-time faculty members employed in public universities in the Czech Republic. The participants completed a questionnaire assessing perceived job resources (influence over work, support from supervisor and colleagues), job demands (quantitative demands, work-family conflicts and job insecurity) and three dimensions of faculty well-being (job satisfaction, stress and work engagement). A structural equation model was used to test the effects of “dual processes” hypothesized by the JDR theory, i.e., the existence of two relatively independent paths between job demands/resources and positive/negative aspects of faculty well-being. The model showed a very good fit to our data and explained 60% of the variance in faculty job satisfaction, 46%, in stress and 20% in work engagement. The results provide evidence for the dual processes, including the “motivational process” (i.e., job resources were related predominantly to work engagement and job satisfaction) and the “health impairment process” (i.e., job demands were predominantly associated with stress, mostly through work-family conflict). The study expands current research on faculty well-being by demonstrating the complex, non-linear relationships between academic work environments and different dimensions of faculty well-being.     

Self‐efficacy,school resources,job stressors and burnout among Spanish primary and secondary school teachers: a structural equation approach

This study examines the relationship between school resources, teacher self‐efficacy, potential multi‐level stressors and teacher burnout using structural equation modelling. The causal structure for primary and secondary school teachers was also examined. The sample was composed of 724 primary and secondary Spanish school teachers. The changes occurring in the Spanish teacher role in the last decade were taken into account to select job stressors. The results obtained revealed that external (school support resources) and internal (management classroom self‐efficacy and instructional self‐efficacy) coping resources have a negative and significant effect on job stressors. In turn, job stressors have a positive and significant effect on teachers’ burnout considering it as both a unidimensional and multidimensional construct. Furthermore, the hypothesised structure of burnout dimensions revealed that emotional exhaustion plays a key role in explaining Spanish school teachers’ burnout. Practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Burnout among university faculty: the central role of work–family conflict

This study examined both direct and indirect associations of faculty burnout with psychosocial work environments, using the job resources-demands framework. A sample of 2,229 faculty members (57.1% male) throughout public universities in the Czech Republic completed a questionnaire comprising measures of burnout and psychosocial work environment characteristics from the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire II. We formulated a structural model that hypothesised a positive effect of job demands (quantitative demands, work-family conflict (WFC), job insecurity) and a negative effect of job resources (influence, social community, role clarity) on burnout. Results showed that the strongest predictor of burnout was WFC, which had a direct positive effect on burnout and mediated the positive effect of quantitative demands on burnout. Further, a small direct negative effect of age and an indirect positive effect of involvement in research grants and administrative paperwork on burnout were observed. The findings indicate that university management can most effectively address burnout in academic staff not only by implementing policies that reduce WFC, workload and administrative paperwork, but also by providing more job resources to younger faculty and faculty involved in grant-based projects.     

Between two Advisors: Interconnecting Academic and Workplace Settings in an Emerging Field

This article examines a new training design for continuing professional development that aims to support the learning of the novel knowledge and skills needed in emerging professional fields by interconnecting academic and workplace settings. The training design is based on using two advisors, one from working life and the other from an academic context. The article examined whether participants’ personal orientation to adaptive expertise predicts the success of a guidance process. The interconnection of workplace and academic contexts was expected to occur through guidance practices. In addition, the features underlying the most successful guidance relationships were analysed. Data were collected by conducting repeated semi-structured interviews with 18 course participants, eight academic advisors and eight workplace advisors in the context of a 1-year energy efficiency training programme. The results indicated that a trainee’s personal orientation towards adaptive expertise is a significant component in successful guidance processes. An interconnection of workplace and academic knowledge and practices was hardly found in the guidance provided by each participant’s academic and workplace advisors. The feature underlying the most successful guidance relationships are related at the personal, dyad and context levels. An excellent match between the expert profiles of the learner and the advisor appears to be especially critical for successful guidance and powerful knowledge exchange in emerging fields. However, finding matching advisors is often challenging. Many problems are presumably solved if these ‘right persons’ can be found and if the trainees are themselves oriented to utilise the novel resources provided to them by the advisors.     

A Statistical Study of a New Type of Objective Examination Question

ABSTRACT

The author attempted to examine how Taiwanese junior high school students’ perfectionistic tendencies and achievement goals were related to their academic burnout versus work engagement, and to determine differences in the indicators of burnout versus engagement among students with different subtypes of perfectionism. A total of 456 eighth-grade Taiwanese students completed a self-reported survey assessing their perfectionistic tendencies, achievement goals, academic burnout, and work engagement. Results of this study indicated that perfectionism along with achievement goals emerged as statistically significant predictors of Taiwanese students’ burnout and work engagement. Additionally, the quality of adolescents’ engagement varied as a function of perfectionistic tendencies. Adaptive perfectionists displayed the healthiest pattern of engagement in schoolwork. Implications for educational practices and future research are discussed.     

Conflict and Ambiguity over Work Roles: The Impact on Child Care Worker Burnout

This study looks at the child care workplace from the viewpoints of occupational stress and social support as they relate to staff burnout. Subjects included 188 child care workers from licensed child care centers in predominantly rural areas of Pennsylvania. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to assess the contribution of work role conflict and work role ambiguity (two forms of occupational stress) to predictions of three facets of burnout (i.e., emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, personal accomplishment). In addition, the buffering effect of social support on the relationship between these variables was assessed. The results show that both work role conflict and work role ambiguity predict a significant portion of the variance in all three facets of burnout. In addition, support is provided for the hypothesis that social support buffers the effect of work role conflict and work role ambiguity on perceived emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. The results are discussed in terms of changes that could be made to improve child care as an adult work environment.     

Conflict and Ambiguity over Work Roles: The Impact on Child Care Worker Burnout

This study looks at the child care workplace from the viewpoints of occupational stress and social support as they relate to staff burnout. Subjects included 188 child care workers from licensed child care centers in predominantly rural areas of Pennsylvania. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to assess the contribution of work role conflict and work role ambiguity (two forms of occupational stress) to predictions of three facets of burnout (i.e., emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, personal accomplishment). In addition, the buffering effect of social support on the relationship between these variables was assessed. The results show that both work role conflict and work role ambiguity predict a significant portion of the variance in all three facets of burnout. In addition, support is provided for the hypothesis that social support buffers the effect of work role conflict and work role ambiguity on perceived emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. The results are discussed in terms of changes that could be made to improve child care as an adult work environment.     

Developing Research Skills for the Future Workplace through Interdisciplinary Near-Peer Mentoring

Abstract

Experiential learning is touted as an effective way of imparting research skills. This suggests that master’s students undergoing training in research psychology should be exposed to managing projects and supervising interdisciplinary research teams and projects before entering the workplace. The Department of Psychology and Department of Town and Regional Planning at a South African university developed a near-peer mentoring programme in which the psychology master’s students mentored undergraduate urban planning students who were writing their final-year research reports. Focus group discussions with the psychology students about their experiences of the programme were analysed using phenomenography. The psychology students experienced their role as mentor in five hierarchical variations. The first four were seen as challenging, while the benefits were only experienced at the highest level of the hierarchy. Lessons learnt from the mentoring relationship that mirror certain workplace research skills are discussed followed by recommendations for improving the mentoring programme.