The Extent of Professional Burnout and Related Factors Affecting Public School Counselors

Problem. The problem of this study was to investigate the extent of, and factors related to, professional burnout among public school counselors in Virginia within categories of demographic variables. Methods. Participants for the study were selected from a total population of 1664 school counselors in The Commonwealth of Virginia catergorized by the State Department of Education as: (1) Elementary school counselors, (2) Junior high/middle/intermediate school counselors, and (3) Secondary/senior high school counselors. The Maslach Burnout Inventory and a demographic data sheet were mailed to the 463 counselors selected to participate in the study. Of the returned instruments, 295 were complete and used for statistical analysis, with the data being analyzed using the SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Sixteen null hypotheses were formulated and tested at the .05 level of significance. Each hypothesis was directly related to a specific demographic variable and was tested using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). ANOVAs were performed across each demographic variable for each dimension (frequency and intensity) of each subscale (Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and Personal Accomplishment) of the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Further analysis was conducted on dependent variables determined to be significant at the .05 level. The Newman-Keuls\u27 multiple range test was used to determine significant differences between groups; the Duncan\u27s multiple range test was utilized when differences could not be detected by the Newman-Keuls procedure. Conclusions. Significant differences were found in 10 of the 16 demographic variables used to test the hypotheses for the study. It was concluded that sex differences may reflect and account for the differences in perceived burnout in public school counselors. Ethnic background, marital status, age, school building level, and school system also appear to be factors in burnout. Salary and educational attainment levels do not appear to be significant factors in relation to burnout in Virginia counselors