How Strongly Is Personality Associated With Burnout Among Teachers? A Meta-analysis

Abstract

Teachers’ burnout has severe consequences for themselves and their students. The identification of factors related to burnout can provide valuable information about the relevance of interindividual differences. Beyond work-related factors, burnout is assumed to be affected by individuals’ personality traits, and several empirical studies already exist that have investigated this association in teachers. However, a comprehensive meta-analytical examination is missing so far. The current meta-analysis, including 18 primary studies with 19 samples (total N = 4,724), aimed to examine the relation between burnout dimensions (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment) and the Big Five personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness) in teachers. In addition, moderating effects of teachers’ professional level were investigated. In line with our expectations, neuroticism was positively related to all three burnout dimensions, with medium-sized effects found for emotional exhaustion and depersonalization and a small effect size found for reduced personal accomplishment. The other significant associations between personality traits and burnout dimensions were negative. Apart from a nonsignificant association between emotional exhaustion and openness, all associations were rated as small to medium. The moderator analyses did not show any support for moderating effects of teachers’ professional level concerning the associations between burnout dimensions and personality traits.