Medicinski Podmladak (Jan 2020)
The burnout syndrome of educational workers
Abstract
Since the 1970's when it first started being mentioned in scientific literature, the burnout syndrome has become a widely explored phenomenon. It is defined as a stressful reaction at workplace characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization/cynicism and reduced feeling of personal achievements. However, authors agreed that it is a multicausal phenomenon as they identified a large number of situational and individual factors involved in its creation. Situational factors relate to working environment and include characteristics of work and profession itself, so as the way of work organization. On the other hand, individual factors include personality characteristics, sociodemographic characteristics and various life-working attitudes of individuals. However, existence of certain contradictions has been noticed and its variation depending on the country in question. The importance of this phenomenon is reflected in numerous negative effects it leaves on the health of individuals, but also in the significant economic overloading of employer and the country, as well. This is the reason for conducting numerous researches regarding this syndrome, with a high prevalence observed in a wide range of professions, including teachers. Authors emphasize that the importance of researching this phenomenon among teachers is of global interest due to already described negative effects on teachers. Additionally, it has a direct effect on educational process, as well as negative influence on mental and emotional growth of children. Consequently, additional research is necessary, especially among teachers, in order to better understand this phenomenon. Gaining further knowledge would enable us to form targeted interventions in order to reduce stress exposure at work and reduce the prevalence of this syndrome among teachers.
