Emotional Burnout in School Teachers with Different Self-Attitude Indicators

Abstract

This empirical study links emotional burnout with self-attitude. The contemporary pedagogical environment subjects school teachers to emotional burnout and professional deformation. On the one hand, the state and society have extremely high professional requirements for teachers, who strive to improve their psychological, pedagogical, didactic, methodological, and digital competencies. On the other hand, the social and financial insecurity forces school teachers to increase their workload at the expense of their physical and psycho-emotional recovery. The authors hypothesized that a particular self-attitude can trigger the burnout syndrome in teachers. They relied on the subject-activity approach to the emotional burnout syndrome to survey 237 secondary school teachers (169 women, 68 men; 32–40 y.o.). Their self-attitudes were identified by the personal differential method, W. Stephenson’s Self-Image Test, and V. V. Stolin and S. R. Panteleev’s Self-Attitude Test. The level of emotional burnout was measured using V. V. Boyko’s Diagnostics of Emotional Burnout. An expert assessment served as an additional method to identify the performance indicators. The empirical research revealed that the teachers with an adequately positive self-attitude demonstrated fewer symptoms of emotional burnout, which stayed at an initial stage. They managed to maintain high standards of working capacity and professional motivation, as well as effective vertical and horizontal social communication. The teachers with a less positive self-attitude experienced severe symptoms of burnout and professional deformation, which affected their professional activities. They were confrontational and complained about low motivation, poor performance, procrastination, etc. The data obtained may help to improve psychological support programs and psychological counseling in schools.