Burnout in teaching: The importance of personal and professional variables

Abstract

In this chapter we present a characterization of the levels of burnout in teachers of Portuguese public schools in function of personal and professional variables. A total of 9,269 teachers participated in the study, which makes up about 7% of the pre-school and school teachers from all regions of Portugal. Participants completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI; Maslach, Jackson & Leiter, 1996), which allows a threedimensional characterization of burnout: personal accomplishment, emotional exhaustion, and depersonalization. A differential burnout pattern was identified based on gender, years of professional experience and professional qualifications. Female teachers experience greater emotional exhaustion, while male teachers feel more depersonalized. Teachers with more years of working experience are more exhausted. Teachers with higher professional qualifications have higher levels of personal and professional accomplishment. This pattern suggests the need for an intervention promoting the health and wellbeing of teachers, oriented towards the training and professional valorization and the prevention of the emotional exhaustion that happens with the career advancement and years of experience.