Being Well and Striving Steady at Work – The Relationship of Social Support and Self- Concordant Goal Selection with Teacher Burnout

Abstract

Teacher burnout is influencing the quality of teaching and the connection of teachers with their students, thus it is a phenomenon worth paying attention to. In the past, researchers showed that following goals that are intrinsically motivated, can work as protective factors for burnout syndrome. The present study investigates the relationship between teachers’ burnout level and the motivational background behind their professional goals. We assumed that autonomous motivation in goals will be associated with low burnout level, and controlled motivation in goals will be associated with high burnout level. We assumed that positive emotions and social support are related to goals with autonomous motivation, and negative emotions are related to goals with controlled motivation, and we tend to create two clusters accordingly. We assumed that the negative cluster will be associated with high burnout level, and positive cluster will be associated with low burnout level. The results strengthened all of the hypotheses. High and medium burnout levels were associated with the negative cluster, and low burnout level was associated with the positive cluster. The present study provides a contribution for understanding the protecting factors for teacher burnout, and brings awareness on how teachers’ work-related goals is connected to burnout syndrome.