Building teacher resilience : relations of self-compassion among teacher efficacy and burnout

Teacher burnout is a phenomenon that has received a considerable amount of research. There is good reason for this, given that growing rates of teacher burnout are associated with many negative consequences including a reduction in teacher quality and increased costs due to high teacher turnover rates. Emerging research indicates that strengthening teachers’ social and emotional competencies (SEC) may lower burnout while promoting feelings of well-being and resilience. The aim of this study was to add to the body of current research focused on investigating teacher SEC and burnout by examining self-compassion, a promising, yet currently under researched SEC, in relation to other teacher characteristics known to be associated with burnout. Specifically, the present study assessed relations among self-compassion, teacher efficacy, and years of teaching experience to burnout by analyzing the self-reported responses of 52 elementary and secondary teachers to a teacher health and well-being questionnaire. Along with the use of correlational analysis, three multiple regression models were used to examine relations among self-compassion, teacher efficacy, and years of teaching experience to each of the three dimensions of burnout: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment. Additionally, the hierarchy of importance of each variable to each dimension of burnout was measured using the Pratt-index. As hypothesized, self-compassion was significantly associated with all three dimensions of burnout, and was measured to be the variable of greatest importance for the dimensions of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. Teacher efficacy was only significantly associated with, and found to be relatively important to one dimension of burnout: personal accomplishment. When examined collectively, self-compassion, teacher efficacy, and years of teaching experience moderately predicted personal accomplishment, but failed to significantly predict emotional exhaustion or depersonalization. Findings from this study suggest that efforts to diminish teacher burnout require development of multiple competencies that address the multidimensional aspect of burnout. Self-compassion warrants further examination as a potential competency that may serve to assist in such efforts.Education, Faculty ofEducational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department ofGraduat