Early childhood teachers and burn-out syndrome – perception of Croatian teachers

Abstract

Due to increasing demand for early childhood education, ensuring the quality of early childhood institutions has become an imperative. The quality of such institutions depends on the professional development, competences and behaviour (both positive and negative) of teachers. However, early years teachers appear to be vulnerable to ‘burn-out’ syndrome and early intervention and prevention measures may be needed to address this. During 2016, an online survey was conducted which involved 456 early childhood teachers from Croatia. The aim of this research was to investigate the ways in which age, length of work experience and level of education might affect the occurrence/intensity of burn-out syndrome in teachers. The research was conducted with the help of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI-NL-ES, Schaufeli, Daamen andVan Mierlo in 1994, developed according to the MBI-ES, Maslach and Jackson in 1986). Analysis of the responses shows that individuals’ personal characteristics (biographical features) and their self-assessment are connected to each of three aspects of burn-out.