Personality and contextual variables in teacher burnout

Abstract

Although several papers have shown the importance of personality structure in the disposition to burnout, its role remains controversial, especially in relation to contextual variables of an organizational and environmental type. In this sense, we have first considered describing and then predicting the burnout levels of 99 teachers in the province of Seville (Spain). In addition to a structured, self-applied interview, we have used the Spanish adaptation of the reduced version of NEO-PI-R (NEO-FFI) (Costa and McCrae, 1999) and the Spanish teachers version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) (Ferrando and Pe´rez, 1996). We have used Homogeneity Analysis and Multiple Linear Regression (SPSS 11). The results allow us to appreciate the important role of personality structure in combination with some of the selected contextual variables, both in the description and prediction of teacher burnout. Most results confirm what has been achieved in similar research, and they especially emphasize the role of agreeableness as a protective factor (high scores) and, at the same time, as a vulnerability factor (low scores). These results are discussed from the perspective of interaction between disposition and contextual variables.