A Canadian-Dutch Comparison of Teachers' Burnout

Scores on burnout among 631 Canadian and 1,180 Dutch teachers were compared with various demographic variables (sex and age) and factors related to work (experience in teaching, type of school, and number of hours employed). Burnout was assessed with the Maslach Burnout Inventory of three dimensions, Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and Personal Accomplishment. Analysis indicated that, over-all, Canadian teachers reported higher scores on Emotional Exhaustion and Depersonalization than their Dutch peers. Differences in the number of hours employed were also significant: full-time Canadian teachers scored higher on Depersonalization than their Dutch colleagues. Across countries, sex and type of school appeared significantly related to burnout. Male teachers rated higher on Emotional Exhaustion and Depersonalization than the women. Especially with regard to the attitudinal components of burnout, i.e., Depersonalization and Personal Accomplishment, secondary school teachers reported higher scores than elementary school teachers. Age was not significantly related to measures.

[1]  T. Pretorius.  Using the Maslach Burnout Inventory to assess educators' burnout at a university in South Africa. , 1994, Psychological reports.

[2]  Wilmar B. Schaufeli,et al.  Burnout and reciprocity: Towards a dual-level social exchange model , 1996 .

[3]  C. Cooper,et al.  Mental health, job satisfaction and occupational stress among UK teachers , 1993 .

[4]  R. Burke,et al.  Gender-role differences, work stress and depersonalization. , 1990 .

[5]  M. Boaz.  Food for Thought. The Use of Educational Technology: Its Influence on Higher Education , 1982 .

[6]  R. Burke,et al.  A Gender‐role Perspective of Coping and Burnout , 1990 .

[7]  Alan J. Taylor,et al.  Work stress, distress and burnout in music and mathematics teachers , 1994 .

[8]  W. Schaufeli,et al.  Burnout among Dutch Teachers: An Mbi-Validity Study , 1994 .

[9]  J. S. Adams,et al.  Inequity In Social Exchange , 1965 .

[10]  I. Friedman.  High- and Low-Burnout Schools : School Culture Aspects of Teacher Burnout , 1991 .

[11]  S. Jackson,et al.  The role of sex and family variables in burnout , 1985 .

[12]  R. Burke,et al.  Is Job Satisfaction an Antecedent or a Consequence of Psychological Burnout? , 1991 .

[13]  B. Byrne.  Burnout: Investigating the Impact of Background Variables for Elementary, Intermediate, Secondary, and University Educators. , 1991 .

[14]  Joseph Blase,et al.  A Qualitative Analysis of Sources of Teacher Stress: Consequences for Performance , 1986 .

[15]  M. B. Anderson,et al.  Teacher Motivation and its Relationship to Burnout , 1984 .

[16]  K. Punch,et al.  Stressful factors and the likelihood of psychological distress among classroom teachersShort reports , 1991 .

[17]  R. Gold,et al.  Stress and Burnout , 1982 .

[18]  D. Russell,et al.  Job-related stress, social support, and burnout among classroom teachers. , 1987, The Journal of applied psychology.

[19]  C. Cooper.  Life at the chalkface--identifying and measuring teacher stress. , 1995, The British journal of educational psychology.

[20]  Sid Bourke,et al.  Teacher stress: Examining a model based on context, workload, and satisfaction , 1992 .

[21]  Norah I. Hart.  Student teachers' anxieties: four measured factors and their relationships to pupil disruption in class , 1987 .

[22]  S. Ralph,et al.  Towards the identification of stress in teachers , 1992 .

[23]  S. Sarason,et al.  Professional burnout in human service organizations , 1980 .

[24]  G. Boyle,et al.  A structural model of the dimensions of teacher stress. , 1995, The British journal of educational psychology.

[25]  F. Rust.  The first year of teaching: It's not what they expected , 1994 .

[26]  M. Borg,et al.  Sources of teacher stress in Maltese primary schools , 1991 .

[27]  R. Burke,et al.  Psychological Burnout among Men and Women in Teaching: An Examination of the Cherniss Model , 1989 .

[28]  L. Greiner,et al.  The “feminine mystique” in male-dominated jobs: A comparison of attitudes and background factors of women in male-dominated versus female-dominated jobs , 1980 .