Special Education Teachers’ Self-Efficacy and Job Satisfaction in Youth Development Centers: A Quantitative Correlational Study

The number of students with disabilities entering youth development centers is increasing exponentially. The youth development center schools that are responsible for providing academic services to these students are inadequately staffed with special education teachers to meet the behavioral and academic needs of juvenile offenders with disabilities. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to explore the relationship between special education teacher self-efficacy and job satisfaction in teachers within the twenty-five youth development center schools located throughout the Georgia DJJ System. The participants completed the Teachers\u27 Sense of Self-Efficacy Survey (TSES) and the Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS). TSES was used to identify three sub-categories of classroom management, instructional strategies, and student engagement. The JSS was used to measure job satisfaction as defined by nature of work, pay, promotion, supervision, fringe benefits, operating conditions, coworkers, and contingent rewards communication. A series of Pearson product-moment correlations were used to measure the relationship between teacher self-efficacy and job satisfaction. The participants for the study included 66 special education teachers who teach juvenile offenders with disabilities in a secured youth development center. The conceptual framework for this study is based on Bandura\u27s social cognitive theory. By understanding the relationship between special education teachers who teach in youth development centers, teacher self-efficacy, and job satisfaction, state departments of juvenile justice may be able to increase teacher retention, reduce the recidivism rate and improve educational outcomes of juvenile offenders with disabilities