Exposure to Violence, Posttraumatic Stress, and Burnout Among Teachers in El Salvador: Testing a Mediational Model

Abstract

Community violence has reached concerning proportions in El Salvador, possibly affecting all sectors of society. To date, little attention has focused on the effects of violence exposure on educators in Central American countries. This study examined the relationships between lifetime community violence exposure, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology, and burnout in 2 independent samples of elementary and high school teachers in El Salvador—Study 1 ( N = 193) and Study 2 ( N = 257). Findings indicated that teachers across both samples were exposed to multiple violent events over their lifetimes. Results of 2 separate regression analyses with bootstrapping indicated significant indirect effects of violence exposure on burnout through PTSD symptomatology across these independent samples. These results suggest that teachers who were exposed to more frequent lifetime violence were at greater risk for occupational burnout, and this link was partly attributable to PTSD symptomatology. These findings implicate teachers’ exposure to violence as a potentially disruptive influence in educational settings and underscore the need for developing strategies for training and support of teachers in El Salvador and other educators working in high violence, postconflict Central American settings.

Posttraumatic stress disorder symptom severity and control beliefs as the predictors of academic burnout amongst adolescents following the Wenchuan Earthquake

“…cognitive or emotional resources) to relieve the distress from PTSD (Solomon & Dekel, 2007; Zhou, Wu, & Chen, 2015), and this will lead to resource depletion when having to cope with academic problems. The mismatch between individual resources and demands may finally lead to burnout (Rojas-Flores et al, 2015). One characteristic of PTSD, a hyperarousal state, can affect students with severe emotional tension (Sullivan & Elbogen, 2014) and result in emotional exhaustion.…”

“…Nevertheless, many studies have focused on the association between PTSD symptom severity and job burnout in adults (Baird & Jenkins, 2003; Mealer et al, 2009; Mitani, Fujita, Nakata, & Shirakawa, 2006); generally finding a positive association between these (Boudoukha, Altintas, Rusinek, Fantini-Hauwel, & Hautekeete, 2013; Rojas-Flores et al, 2015). One potential explanation for this pattern is that PTSD itself is a kind of emotional distress that is characterized by increased hyper-arousal states; people with more serious PTSD symptoms may be experiencing higher emotional tension and vigilance (Sullivan & Elbogen, 2014), and thus this type of person may be more likely to feel emotional exhaustion.…”

“…One potential explanation for this pattern is that PTSD itself is a kind of emotional distress that is characterized by increased hyper-arousal states; people with more serious PTSD symptoms may be experiencing higher emotional tension and vigilance (Sullivan & Elbogen, 2014), and thus this type of person may be more likely to feel emotional exhaustion. Due to this, people with PTSD have reported more burnout compared to those without PTSD (Boudoukha et al, 2013; Rojas-Flores et al, 2015). …”

“…This model assumes that every occupation may have two categorical factors (demands and resources) related to burnout: when lack of resources complicates the meeting of demands; then burnout may be present (Demerouti et al, 2001). Also, individuals with more serious PTSD symptoms may have fewer resources to meet their demands at work, and thus this situation predisposes them to experience burnout (Rojas-Flores et al, 2015). Because students’ core activities may be considered as a kind of ‘work’ (Shih, 2012; Zhang, Klassen, & Wang, 2013), we may speculate that PTSD symptom severity will be associated positively with academic burnout among adolescents.…”

“…However, previous studies have focused on the relation between PTSD symptom severity and job burnout (Boudoukha et al, 2013; Rojas-Flores et al, 2015), and have overlooked the relation of PTSD to academic burnout in adolescents. Additionally, although the unique role of PTSD symptom severity and control beliefs in burnout has been assessed (Baird & Jenkins, 2003; Glass & McKnight, 1996), no studies to date have examined their combined role in burnout, particularly in academic burnout among adolescents.…”