Psychological Reports, 1992, 71, 1331-1336. O Psycholog~cdReports 1992

BURNOUT AND STRESS, DEPRESSION AND SELF-ESTEEM O F TEACHERS ' J O E BEER AND JOHN BEER

North Central Kansas Special Education Coop Phillipsburg, Kansas Summary.-33 teachers from one institutional school setting and 59 teachers from t h e e north central school districts volunteered to complete and return Beck's Depression Scale, the Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory-Adult Form, Stress Profile for Teachers, and the Staff Burnout Scale for Mental Health Professionals. Analysis of variance (2 x 2) for teaching level (grade and high school) by sex showed those teaching regular classrooms in grade school experienced less burnout and stress than did high school teachers. There was no sex difference. In the institutional setting there was a significant difference on burnout scores between men and women who taught high school; their scores were higher than those of the male grade school teachers. Burnout Lie scores were also significantly higher for female high school teachers than for both male and female grade school teachers. Scores on stress were significantly higher for male high school teachers than for both female high school teachers and male grade school teachers.

Burnout among staff in health professions is typically defined as a syndrome of physical and emotional exhaustion involving the development of negative attitudes, poor self-concept, and loss of concern for clients (Jones, 1980). Burnout is an occupational hazard for teachers. I t is a response to chronic stress associated with factors in the educational organization and the teaching environment (Hendrickson, 1979). "Staff burnout appears to be an adverse work stress reaction with both psychological, psychophysiological, and behavioral components" (Jones, 1980, p. 1). Uneasy feelings precede being tired all of the time, sleeplessness, depression, and being physically run down. Physical and emotional exhaustion follow. Teachers' absenteeism is increasing in the United States (Elliott & Manlove, 1977), and dropout is another problem. There is an estimated 10% annual dropout rate, and nearly 50% of teachers leave their profession within 10 years after entering. Most teachers leave [he first 2 or 3 years (Stinnett, 1977). Wilson (197913, 1981) reported that both regular and special education teachers experienced no difference in stress which was considered moderate for both. Time management was rated most frequently as most stressful. Individuals with high self-esteem are more effective, active, and assertive in meeting environmental demands while individuals with low self-esteem, according to Coopersmith (1967), tend to withdraw and experience distress. They are more self-punitive, express self-hatred, psychosomatic symp'Request reprints from John Beer, 312 East Main Street, Osborne, KS 67473.

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toms, feelings of depression, and distress. Depression tends to be associated with low self-esteem. The characteristics of depression include self-dislike, social withdrawal, pessimism, sense of failure, complaints about and preoccupation with bodily function (Beck & Beamesderfer, 1974). The present study was undertaken to examine the correlation among scores on depression and self-esteem, burnout, and stress for regular and special education teachers. METHOD Subjects Fifty-nine regular education teachers (14 men, 39 women, missing data = 6; grade school = 43, high school = 16) in three north central Kansas rural school districts participated in the study while 33 special education teachers (9 high school men, 9 high school women, 7 grade school men, 8 grade school women) were from one Kansas institutional setting. Teachers were offered the opportunity to participate by completing and returning the questionnaires delivered to their building mail boxes. When data were missing from the forms, those protocols were omitted, so the small sample reflected teachers not completing the burnout scale and not being willing to participate.

Procedure Teachers completed the Beck Depression Scale (1978), the Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory-Adult Form (1981), Stress Profile for Teachers (Wilson, 1979a), and the Staff Burnout Scale for Mental Health Professionals (Jones, 1980); they also gave demographic data. Coopersmith's (1981) Self-esteem Inventory-Adult Form has 100 points possible with 75 to 100 as a high or adequate score. Subjects mark Like Me/Unlike M e for 25 questions which are summed for a total score. The depression scale has 6 3 possible points with scores 0 to 9 within the average range. Beck suggested guidelines for classification as 0-9 average range, 10-15 mild depression, 16-19 mild to moderate, 20-29 moderate to severe, and 30-63 as severe (Beck, 1978). Jones (1980) devised the Staff Burnout Scale for Health Professionals which yields a total burnout score and a lie measure. The Wilson Stress Profile for Teachers (1981), a 36-item questionnaire, has 9 subtests and an over-all composite stress score. The subtests include Student Behavior, Employee-Administration Relations, Teacher-Teacher Relations, Parent-Teacher Relations, Time Management, Intra~ersonalConflict, Physical Symptoms of Stress, Psychological-Emotional Symptoms of Stress, and Stress Management Techniques. Items of each are rated on a scale of 1 (never) to 5 (very often). The composite stress score may be low (36-72), moderate (73-108), or high (109-180).

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STRESS, DEPRESSION AND SELF-ESTEEM

RESULTSAND DISCUSSION A 2 x 2 analysis of variance for teaching level (grade and high school) by sex (man and woman) for the regular education teachers yielded no significant difference for depression (F,,,, = 0.22, p > .05) or self-esteem (F,,,,= 0.54, p > .05). See Table 1 for descriptive statistics. TABLE 1 MEANS,STANDARD DEVIATIONS, AND NS FOR MEN (M) A N D WOMEN(W) ON MEASURES Group and Measure

Sex

Grade School

Regular Education Depression

M

SD

36 7 36 8 35 7 35 7 35 8 35 7 35 8 35 8 34 8 35 8 35 8 35 8

6.20 6.50 16.80 20.00 81.80 89.50 2.40 2.50 105.33 97.33 11.75 11.17

M

5.12 4.32 5.57 4.96 19.03 5.03 18.88 5.69 97.74 13.33 98.71 9.12 3.26 2.37 3.71 3.95 86.29 20.63 85.50 20.47 9.83 2.39 10.71 1.70 5.75 2.20 5.75 1.91 6.51 2.47 8.13 2.90 12.21 2.82 10.63 1.60 11.09 4.10 10.38 3.42 10.34 3.85 11.00 2.56 11.09 3.87 10.50 2.67

9.50 8.78 8.17 13.89 13.00 12.56 12.83 12.67 11.50 12.67 12.00

3.01 3.94 4.18 5.59 17.93 17.20 2.17 2.59 14.44 16.94 2.76 2.93 3.81 3.45 3.31 2.71 2.15 1.41 2.35 3.43 2.00 3.27 4.09 1.55

Self-esteem Burnout Burnout lie Totd stress

W M W M

9.69 9.63 9.74 10.13

3.66 4.57 2.91 3.72

35 8 35 8

12.44 10.83 12.00 10.00

2.88 2.71 3.12 2.53

6.89 2.69 4.71 3.29 7.65 11.56

8 7

W M W M W M W M W M

Student behavior

W

Employee/admin. relations

W

M M Teacherlteacher relations Parentlteacher relations Time management

W M W M W M

Intrapesond conflicts

W M

Physical stress symptom

W

Psych./emotional stress symptoms Stress management techniques Institutional Setting Depression Self-esteem Burnout

5.75 W M 2.29 18.25 W M 18.14 W 92.00 89.20 M (continued on next

SD

High School n

M

page)

8 7 5 5

11.33

5.67 9.62 7.22 7.92 22.22 1.64 18.00 6.46 106.00 0.00 104.71 10.11

n

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J. BEER

& J.

BEER

TABLE 1 (CONT'D) MEANS,STANDARD DEVIATIONS, AND NS FOR MEN (M) AND WOMEN(W) ON MEASURES Group and Measure Burnout Lie Total stress

Sex W M W M

High School

Grade School

M

SD

n

1.20 1.20 68.20 50.40

1.30 1.30 8.17 10.78

5 5 5 5

M

SD

5.00 0.00 2.86 2.27 38.50 44.55 73.43 16.28

n

1 7 1 7

A significant difference was noted for burnout (F,,,, = 5.67, p < .01). Grade school teachers (M = 98.9) reported hlgher burnout scores than high school teachers (M = 84.7; F,,,, = 11.35, p < .01). No significant effect for sex (F = 0.53, p > .05) or on the burnout lie scale (F,,,,= 1.57, p > .05) were noted. The higher the burnout score the more healthy the person and less burnout experienced. A significant effect for stress (F,,,, = 3.99, p< .05) was observed. Grade school teachers (M = 85.1) reported lower stress scores than high school teach= 7.96, p < . 0 1 ) , but there was no significant effect for ers (M = 102.1; F,,,, sex. Again, the lower the stress score the more healthy the person and the less stress reported. Pearson correlations indicated a negative relationship among scores on depression and self-esteem, burnout, burnout lie, and total stress; see Table 2. Depression was reported as associated with low self-esteem (Beer, 1987), while burnout and stress were high, for these scores are positively correlated. Grade school teachers were experiencing less burnout and less stress than h g h school teachers in regular education. For the teachers in an institutional setting the analysis yielded no significant difference for teaching level or sex on depression (F,,,, = 1.85, p> .05) or on self-esteem (F,,,, = 0.59, p > .05), but there was a significant difference in burnout scores (F,,,, = 3.63, p< .05). The difference was between men (M = 104.7, SD = 10.1) and women (M = 106.0, SD = 00.00) in high school teaching who had higher scores than the men teachng grade school (M = 89.2, SD = 11.6). Burnout lie scores (F,,,, = 3.23, p c . 0 5 ) were significant by sex; women teaching high school (M = 5.0, SD = 00.0) had higher scores than both women (M = 1.2, SD = 1.3) and men (M = 1.2, SD = 1.3) teaching grade school. There was a significant difference on stress scores (F,,,, = 3.35, p c . 0 5 ) between men and women teaching high school; the men had the higher scores and also had higher scores than men teaching grade school. Pearson correlations indicated a negative association between depression and self-esteem scores ( r = -.42, p

Burnout and stress, depression and self-esteem of teachers.

33 teachers from one institutional school setting and 59 teachers from three north central school districts volunteered to complete and return Beck's ...
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