Search

Teachers constitute a vulnerable professional group in terms of the impact of work-related stress on depression. The present study examined flourishing and occupational depression in general education teachers (GETs) and special education teachers (SETs). A sample of 448 Italian teachers (69.6% of SETs), mostly women (85.5%), aged 26-67 (M = 40.32; SD = 9.01), completed the Flourishing Scale and the Occupational Depression Inventory. We found a negative association between flourishing and occupational depression, moderated by role (GETs versus SETs). The negative association between flourishing and occupational depression was stronger for GETs than for SETs. The potential role of individual and occupational factors in mitigating work-related stress and depression is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined whether burnout is associated with a depressive cognitive style, understood as a combination of dysfunctional attitudes, ruminative responses, and pessimistic attributions. A total of 1386 U.S. public school teachers were included—1063 women ( M AGE : 42.73, SD AGE = 11.36) and 323 men ( M AGE : 44.60, SD AGE = 11.42). Burnout was assessed with the Shirom–Melamed Burnout Measure (SMBM). Dysfunctional attitudes were measured with the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale Short Form, ruminative responses with the Ruminative Responses Scale, and pessimistic attributions with the Depressive Attributions Questionnaire. For comparative purposes, depression was assessed using the 9-item depression module of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Dysfunctional attitudes, ruminative responses, and pessimistic attributions were each similarly associated with burnout and depression. Moreover, the correlations between the SMBM and the PHQ-9 that we observed were comparable to the correlations between the SMBM and the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey reported in past research. Dysfunctional attitudes, ruminative responses, and pessimistic attributions were more characteristic of individuals with high frequencies of burnout (or depressive) symptoms than of their counterparts with low frequencies of burnout (or depressive) symptoms. This study suggests that burned out individuals live in a depressive cognitive world, consistent with the view that burnout is a depressive syndrome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives Burnout has been viewed as a phase in the development of depression. However, supportive research is scarce. We examined whether burnout predicted depression among French school teachers. Methods We conducted a 2-wave, 21-month study involving 627 teachers (73% female) working in French primary and secondary schools. Burnout was assessed with the Maslach Burnout Inventory and depression with the 9-item depression module of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). The PHQ-9 grades depressive symptom severity and provides a provisional diagnosis of major depression. Depression was treated both as a continuous and categorical variable using linear and logistic regression analyses. We controlled for gender, age, and length of employment. Results Controlling for baseline depressive symptoms, linear regression analysis showed that burnout symptoms at time 1 (T1) did not predict depressive symptoms at time 2 (T2). Baseline depressive symptoms accounted for about 88% of the association between T1 burnout and T2 depressive symptoms. Only baseline depressive symptoms predicted depressive symptoms at follow-up. Similarly, logistic regression analysis revealed that burnout symptoms at T1 did not predict incident cases of major depression at T2 when depressive symptoms at T1 were included in the predictive model. Only baseline depressive symptoms predicted cases of major depression at follow-up. Conclusions This study does not support the view that burnout is a phase in the development of depression. Assessing burnout symptoms in addition to "classical" depressive symptoms may not always improve our ability to predict future depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This daily diary study followed, over a 2-week period, 252 beginning New York City public school teachers. Seventy percent were alternatively certified (New York City Teaching Fellows) and the rest, traditionally certified teachers. Alternatively certified teachers were more likely to experience stressors such as violent incidents and classroom management problems. No differences were found in exposure to stressors/difficulties such as problematic adults, student learning problems, and students experiencing emotional upset. Although differences in the rates of exposure to violent stressors could be explained by other factors (e.g., working in a low-performing school and years of experience), differences in the rates of occurrence of classroom management problems could not. Nevertheless, the high absolute rates of management problems and violence in both groups of teachers were striking and need to be addressed. The authors suggest measures to be taken to address the problem of retaining talented new teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objective: There is mounting evidence that burnout problematically overlaps with depression. However, the generalizability of this finding remains debated. This study examined the burnout-depression distinction based on a recently developed measure of work-attributed depressive symptoms-the Occupational Depression Inventory (ODI).Methods: We relied on a sample of 891 Australian teachers. The ODI was employed to assess work-attributed depressive symptoms. The Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure (SMBM) and the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI) were employed to assess burnout symptoms. The SMBM assesses burnout as a syndrome combining physical fatigue, cognitive weariness, and emotional exhaustion. The OLBI assesses burnout as a syndrome of exhaustion and disengagement.Results: Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the factors underlying burnout's components correlated more highly with the Occupational Depression factor than with each other, calling into question the syndromal unity of burnout. Moreover, the factors underlying burnout's components and the Occupational Depression factor were reflective of a common higher-order factor.Conclusions: Our findings are consistent with the view that burnout symptoms are part of a depressive syndrome and do not reflect a unique or distinct entity. Conducted in the Australian context, this study strengthens the generalizability of the finding that burnout problematically overlaps with depression. Given the profound problems affecting the burnout construct, we recommend a paradigm shift from burnout to occupational depression. Such a shift raises the prospects of more reliably and validly assessing severity and prevalence of job-related distress and, consequently, of reaching more psychologically meaningful and productive conclusions regarding treatment, prevention, and public health decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes a cross-sectional study of the links between job-related stressors and depressive and psychophysiologic symptoms and morale in 67 New York City teachers. The teachers' mean score on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D; M = 13.03) was higher than might be expected from average community residents. The teachers also tended to express dissatisfaction with their jobs. The CES-D and the Psychophysiologic Symptom Scale were correlated as highly as their reliabilities would permit, a finding consistent with the view that the CES-D and the Psychophysiologic Symptom Scale measure the same construct, nonspecific psychological distress. The correlational findings suggest that distress is distinct from job-related morale, which was indexed by measures of motivation to continue teaching and job satisfaction. The results of regression analyses, which controlled for sociodemographic factors, indicated that the level of job strain (frequency of ongoing stressors) is more closely related to psychological distress and low morale than episodic stressors, including crimes in which the teacher was victim. The regression analyses also indicated that colleague support was related to lower symptom levels and higher morale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a study involving 67 veteran New York City teachers five occupational coping scales were constructed: advice seeking, positive comparisons, selective ignoring; discipline and direct action. Multiple regression analyses with controls for social-demographic factors and adversity in the job environment indicated that advice seeking and direct action were most consistently related to lower (depressive and psychophysiologic) symptom levels and that positive comparisons and direct action were most consistently related to higher morale (job satisfaction and motivation to continue in the profession). Selective ignoring appeared to buffer the impact of adverse work environments on symptoms. The results suggest that teaching may constitute an occupational role which is an exception to Pearlin & Schooler's (1978) more general findings on the lack of efficacy of work-related coping behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]