The Impact of Negative Affectivity on Teacher Burnout

Abstract

Teachers’ well-being, including burnout, impacts the stress and well-being of students. Understanding the development of burnout requires not only an examination of stressors, but also a consideration of personality factors. While teachers are subject to many pressures in their profession, they have personalities that make them more or less vulnerable. Our research with 470 secondary school teachers reveals four distinct negative affectivity profiles. Our results show that negative affectivity (tendency to feel depression, anxiety, or stress) plays a role in the development of burnout. However, while teachers with a more anxious profile experience greater emotional exhaustion, those with a depressive profile have more difficulty developing a strong sense of personal accomplishment. The findings highlight the need to take into account the various facets of negative affectivity, particularly in order to be able to propose prevention and intervention approaches adapted to these specific profiles.

Stress, Burnout, Anxiety and Depression among Teachers: A Scoping Review

“…Early studies indicated that teachers’ anxiety prevalence ranged from 26% for borderline anxiety, 36% for minimal or no anxiety, and 38% for clinically significant anxiety [ 45 ]. Recent studies have reported a similar prevalence for low anxiety at 17.6%, mild at 23.2% [ 28 ] and 7.0% to 23.3% for severe to extremely severe anxiety [ 28 , 39 , 41 ]. Another study reported an anxiety prevalence of 43% among teachers.…”

“…The prevalence of stress in all forms ranged from 6.0% to 100% [ 28 , 40 ], with a median of about 32.5%. In addition, the lowest, highest and median stress prevalence ranges from 2020 to 2022 (after the pandemic and lockdown) were, respectively, 6.0% [ 40 ], 66.0% [ 41 ] and 10.7%. Similarly, the lowest, highest and median stress prevalence up until 2019 (prior to the pandemic and lockdown) were, respectively, 7.0% [ 42 ], 100% [ 28 ] and 33.9%.…”

“…This study also reported that 17% of teachers had borderline depression scores, and 4% had scores that indicated clinical depression [ 45 ]. Studies from 2008 onwards identified that the prevalence of depression ranged from 17.86% to 49.1% [ 3 , 41 , 55 , 60 , 61 ] and the prevalence of severe to extremely severe depression ranged from 0.7 to 9.9% [ 42 ], whilst the prevalence of mild depression ranged from 20 to 43.9% [ 41 , 42 , 60 , 62 ]. Soria-Saucedo et al reported a particularly high prevalence (16%) of severe depression symptoms among teachers [ 61 ].…”

“…A significant overlap was reported between stress, burnout, anxiety and depression. Eighteen articles reported a correlation between burnout and depression, with differences in depressive symptomatology depending on the prevalence of burnout [ 3 , 18 , 25 , 41 , 42 , 48 , 50 , 52 , 54 , 60 , 64 , 69 , 84 , 86 , 92 , 95 ]. Three articles reported a correlation between burnout and anxiety symptoms [ 52 , 64 ].…”

“…Negative affectivity (a tendency to feel depression, anxiety, or stress) plays a role in the development of burnout among teachers. Teachers who developed a more markedly negative affectivity also felt more burnt out, and the opposite was true [ 41 ]. This may be related to rumination.…”