Elementary Educators’ Relationship to Burnout Based on Personality Type
Victoria Duncan
Gardner-Webb University School of Psychological Sciences
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for PSY 397, Dr. I. Naydenova, April 29, 2024
Elementary Educators’ Relationship to Burnout Based on Personality Type
Growing up around people who work in the public school system has allowed me to see the effects of burnout in educators first hand. Burnout is a serious issue which has a major impact on teachers and students. In recent years, it seems that more and more teachers have been experiencing burnout or leaving the profession entirely. I would like for this research to help provide a clear understanding of how teachers are really feeling about teaching in the K-5 classroom today. Teachers are exposed to many stressful situations, such as: the introduction of cell phones. With cell phones, students can cause problems which have never occurred until recently. Students feel a sense of entitlement and act as if the rules do not apply to them. I believe that this sense of entitlement is causing teachers to feel more stressed and add to burnout more as teachers have a diminished sense of control over their work and the outcomes that are attributed to them. It is hard work to control twenty to thirty students each day and even having one who does not follow the rules and acts out can cause a lot of stress leading to burnout. There are two questions that I would like to have answered when performing this study. The first question being, is there an association between educators who have the personality aspects of observing and judging with higher levels of burnout? The second question is, do educators who identify as introverted have higher scores for burnout according to the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory?
I believe that if burnout in this profession is related to a particular subtype of a person's personality it could be helpful for potential educators to know before selecting this career. Additionally, this could help school systems screen and select applicants for hire, as well as, proactively support staff whose personality might be associated with burning out.
Burnout Definition and Early Research
The topic of burnout has been discussed and studied in a variety of fields over the last several decades. Burnout is a psychological syndrome emerging as a prolonged response to chronic interpersonal stressors on the job. The three key dimensions of this response are overwhelming exhaustion, feelings of cynicism and detachment from the job, and a sense of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment (Maslach & Leiter, 2016). Burnout is an occupational hazard for anyone who works with people like human services, healthcare, retail, recruiting, and educators.
Prevalence of Burnout
According to the research which García-Arroyo et al., (2019) conducted across 36 countries regarding teacher burnout found that teacher burnout has become a global health issue. Thirty-seven percent of teachers are likely to leave their jobs. This number has risen by 14% from before the pandemic. Two main groups of people are more likely to leave when looking at the survey: women and black teachers (“Teacher Well-Being and Intentions to Leave: Findings from the 2023 State of the American Teacher Survey,” 2023). A majority of the teachers that said they intend to leave some time in the future stated that they are sure they will leave their jobs by the end of the year. According to a 2022 Gallup poll, K-12 workers had the highest rate of burnout of any industry surveyed. Specifically, “Within the K-12 employee population, teachers are the most burned out, at 52%” (Marken & Agrawal, 2022).
Factors that Influence Teacher Burnout
Job Satisfaction is when a working employee has a high level of contentment when doing their job. One of the biggest causes of teacher burnout is not having control of the classroom (Yang & Hoque, 2022). When teachers have control over aspects of their job and of the classroom, they tend to have higher satisfaction with the job that they are doing. Job Satisfaction depends on the organization providing support to their teachers, information that is available to the teacher, ways for teachers to continue their education, and how much teachers are being paid (Trevino-Reyes & Lopez-Perez, 2023, p. 801). Burnout is not caused by only one thing. It is caused by a multitude of different factors that build up.
Some research has been done on the connection between personality and burnout. Notably, some efforts using the Big Five personality dimensions have connected burnout with the dimension of neuroticism (Maslach et al.). Additionally, this research team found that individuals with an external locus of control had higher burnout scores than individuals with an internal locus of control.
COVID-19’s Effect on Burnout
According to Manowaluilou and Thanarachataphoom (2023), the changes which occurred as a result of COVID-19 brought out many concerns about the mental health of educators. They found that the mental well-being of teachers directly coincides with the effectiveness of the classroom. There was a huge loss of motivation to teach when the schools were forced to go online after COVID-19. This is because of the natural depersonalization which resulted by not being face-to-face when teaching. Online teaching performance and stress levels are closely intertwined which can lead to more teacher burnout (Klassen et al., 2012).
Impact of Teacher Burnout
When teachers have a positive attitude about teaching and are not burned out their students have a better quality of learning. There is evidence to support that teacher burnout has a negative impact on students’ academic achievements. A meta-analysis of fourteen studies, found that “students being taught by a teacher suffering from burnout tend to perform worse on exams, tests, and receive lower cumulative grades, than those taught by teachers not experiencing burnout” (Madigan & Kim, 2021).
In addition to the mental strain burnout causes, there have also been negative health outcomes (Toppinen-Tanner et al., 2009). In a longitudinal follow-up study which examined burnout and hospital admissions found that burnout “was related to future hospitalization due to mental and cardiovascular disorders among employees with no previous hospitalization periods or medication for these disorders” (Toppinen-Tanner et al., 2009).
The purpose of this research is to look for a correlation between particular personality sub-types and burnout in educators in the field of K-5 education. Results may provide insight into methods for better selecting and supporting teachers. Although previous research has considered personality as a variable to associate with burnout, this study will attempt to connect the aspects of introversion and extroversion more specifically to the concept. Additionally, it will search for association between a particular personality subtype, observing/judging, and burnout.
Method
Participants
The target participants for this survey were teachers who are currently teaching in an elementary classroom setting. I sent an email to all thirty-two of the teachers in the targeted school asking them to participate in my study. There was no reward or incentive offered for participating in this study. Before taking the survey, each educator had to read the informed consent information. All of the teachers who responded are currently full-time North Carolina certified teachers who currently work in the same Title I school in a large North Carolina school district located in the southwest region of the state.
Apparatus
The necessary items used to create and administer the survey were a computer, Google Forms, and Gmail. I used the computer to create the survey, send the survey, and to collect the results from the survey. I used Google Forms to format the survey and for the collection of responses. I used Gmail to email the survey to the teachers at the Title I school that I selected for this survey.
Procedure
The process which was used to collect the data was a Google form. The Google Form contained five sections. The participants were advised in the first and fifth sections that they could exit now with no repercussions if they did not want their results to be used in the study.
The first section was the Informed Consent and contained my contact information. The second section asked the participants to select their grade level. I used two categories, Kindergarten through Second Grade and Third through Fifth Grade. I split the grade levels based upon when state testing begins. In North Carolina, students first take the End of Grade (EOG) Test in third grade. The third section included the link to the 16 Personalities Quiz. Once scored, this quiz designates one of sixteen different personality types. I then asked the teachers to select their result from the list provided. The fourth section had the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory, which is a popular burnout inventory. According to Bowman (2023), The Oldenburg Burnout Inventory is a self-report measure that measures emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and professional efficacy. Section five is the final section before submitting. In this section, the teachers are reminded of the Informed Consent and advised about the use of their responses. Teachers are reminded again that they can withdraw at this time with no repercussions.
Results
Thirty-two classroom teachers were invited to participate in this process. Eighteen of the teachers responded and completed both the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory and the 16 Personalities Test. Of the 18 teachers who completed both surveys, 9 of the teachers taught students in grades kindergarten through second grade. The other 9 participants instructed students in third through fifth grade. The teachers were split in this manner based upon when standardized testing begins in North Carolina, hence K-2 teachers and 3-5 teachers.
All 18 teachers participated in the 16 Personalities Test which tells them their personality based on their results. The K-5 teachers received one of sixteen results, composed of a variety of traits. Eight of the eighteen teachers had the personality trait of observing/judging. The survey results of 13 teachers classified these teachers as introverted compared to only 5 extroverted teachers.
Participants were also given the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory. This survey indicates their level of burnout based on both disengagement and exhaustion factors. When looking at the descriptive results for the Oldenburg Burnout survey I was able to determine that the mean score for all participants on the instrument was 38.667 and the standard deviation was 6.562. Scores ranged from 22 to 49 for the Oldenburg Burnout Survey. Of the 18 participants, 72% provided responses indicating they were burned out. 22% of study participants were at risk or close to experiencing burnout. 6% of study participants indicated no burnout or risk of burnout at all.
To determine the reliability of the survey items contained in the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory Cronbach’s Alpha was calculated. Items 2,3,4,6,8,9,11,12 were reversed scaled. After calculating Cronbach’s Alpha I was able to determine that the Point estimate was 0.805 as seen in Table 1. With the point estimate of 0.805 being higher than 0.7 this shows that the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory is reliable and valid.
To determine if educators who are identified as introverted have higher scores for burnout according to the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory I calculated the descriptive statistics for introverts and extroverts. Table 2 shows the descriptive statistics for introverts (Group 1) and extroverts (Group 2).
Teachers who identified as introverts had a mean score which was 5.354 higher than the extroverted teachers. In order to determine if the difference in means was significant, I performed a T-Test as shown in Table 3. The results show t(16) = 1.623, NS. With a P value of 0.124, the difference between introverts and extroverts is not significant.
To determine if there is an association between educators who have the personality aspects of “observing and judging” and higher levels of burnout, I calculated the descriptive statistics as seen in Table 4 for teachers who have the sub-type personality of observing and judging (Group 1) and teachers who do not (Group 2).
Teachers who identified as observing and judging had a mean score of 39 compared to teachers who did not have observing and judging 38.400. To determine if there was a significant difference between the two groups of teachers I calculated a T-Test as shown below in Table 5. The results calculated below show t(16) = 0.187, NS. With the value of P being 0.854 for the difference in teachers who have the personality trait of observing and judging compared to those who do not, the results are calculated as not significant. There is not a statistically significant difference between the two means.
Discussion
Based upon the survey results, teachers who have the sub-personality type of observing and judging and teachers who do not, I was able to determine that there was no significant difference between these teachers. The burnout levels for both groups were almost identical. I was unable to confirm an association between the personality sub-type of observing and judging with burnout.
There was a small difference between the teachers that are introverted and extroverted in relation to burnout. Introverted teachers scored slightly higher than extroverted teachers on the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory; however, the difference was not statistically significant. Based on the results of this study, I was unable to find a correlation between personality type and burnout.
Of the 18 participants, 72% provided responses indicating they were burned out. Twenty-two percent of study participants were at risk of experiencing burnout. Six percent of study participants indicated no burnout at all. The overwhelming majority of teachers in this sample are either burned out or at-risk for burning out.
Although no clear link between personality and burnout was discovered, a high degree of burnout was detected in this sample. These findings potentially have important implications for the world of education. Personality screeners during the hiring stage may not have any effect on predicting future teacher burnout. Identifying burnout in existing staff could help administrators provide more support for those teachers; however, the process of identifying staff based on their introverted or extroverted personalities may not be an effective method. The greatest implications come from the high percentage of teachers who are experiencing burnout or teachers at risk for burnout. As Madigan and Kim found, students who are being taught by a teacher who is experiencing burnout tend to have lower grades and to have lower performance on tests and exams compared to students with teachers who are not experiencing burnout. If burnout in K-5 educators mirrors the rates found in this study the majority of elementary students are at a greater risk for underperforming in the classroom. Concurrently, studies have shown that hospital admissions from cardiovascular disorders and mental health disorders are seen among employees experiencing burnout (Toppinen-Tanner et al., 2009). Teacher burnout may result in more teacher absences, less time with a qualified teacher, and more healthcare costs.
There are several limitations which are easily identifiable in this study. First, this study only used a relatively small sample size of 18. Second, this survey was limited to only kindergarten through fifth grade classroom teachers. This study did not include teachers who do not have a homeroom, such as: Art, Music, or PE teachers. Third, this survey was given at a Title I school, which serves a lower socio-economic population of students. Finally, this study was conducted with teachers in the spring, after a prolonged stretch of time with no holidays. Future research should take into consideration the above mentioned points when designing studies. Additional studies should include educators in kindergarten through twelfth grade. Second, future researchers should involve schools from all socioeconomic tiers. Third, further study should incorporate the use of a longitudinal approach and follow new teachers until they resign or retire and periodically survey their levels of burnout throughout the school year. Finally, additional research is needed in the area of teachers who do not hold a teaching license and if these teachers are more susceptible to burnout than fully certified teachers.
Although no association between particular personality types and burnout could be demonstrated, this study appears to find that burnout is prevalent regardless of personality type. The results from this study illustrate that an overwhelming majority of educators are at risk for burnout or are currently burned out. Efforts must be made to determine other associated factors that are connected to burnout so that interventions to reduce this phenomenon can be developed and implemented. This phenomenon is extremely concerning because if a majority of existing teachers are burned out, there may not be enough educators to continue teaching students in the future. Staffing concerns will only continue to grow if educators currently in the field experience burnout at such high rates. Additionally, it may become increasingly difficult to attract new candidates of any personality type to a field where employees experience exceptionally high rates of burnout.
References
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