Teachers’ burnout: A comparison between lay and consecrated teachers

Burn-out syndrome is a physical and mental reaction to stress and overwork characterized by three aspects: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and low personal accomplishment (Maslach, 1976), mainly affecting workers involved in helping professions. Outcomes of a recent and authori- tative 10-year study, carried out by the Medical Association of Milan (2008) show that burnout affects teachers twice as much as it affects clerks, medical staff and health workers. Our research on teacher’s burnout aims to investigate more in depth the impact of some varia- bles, that have not yet been sufficiently explored. The first independent variable deals with the distinction between lay and consecrated (nuns and priests) teachers. The Italian adaptation of MBI (Maslach Burnout Inventory, 1985) for teacher was administered to a group of 306 teachers; 153 lay and 153 consecrated teachers. We hypothesize that there are difference level of burnout between lay and consecrated teaching personnel and that the highest level of burnout is to be found among those who have more years of teaching experience. Results confirmed the hypothesis. In particular, consecrated teachers show higher level of bur- nout, experiencing more depersonalization and lower personal accomplishment than lay teachers