Stress and burnout in special education teachers

Abstract: Background: Duties that teachers are required to perform in the current social context require personal skills which cannot be limited to knowledge accumulation. Teachers related to special education are subject to such pressure, demands and psychological overload that it can result in serious cases of stress and burnout. Objectives: assessing stress and burnout in special education teachers and find out to what extent socio-demographic and psychosocial variables have a significant effect on those levels. Method: Study of quantitative, cross-cutting and descriptive-correlational nature. It is a non-probability sampling based on convenience, composed of 90 teachers, linked to special education in Portugal. The research protocol includes questions of socio-demographic, professional and health characterization, as well as two scales: one which assesses stress and burnout levels (CPB-R) and another which assesses self-efficacy (SES). Data collection took place between January and June 2014, and statistical treatment of data was based on SPSS software 19.0. Outcomes: The sample is mainly composed of females, married, holding a bachelor’s degree and with a mean age of 46 years old. Stress affects 80% of teachers, who feel lack of recognition for their work (64.4%) and professional fulfilment (55.6%). Although overall burnout (35.6%) and emotional exhaustion (48.9%) were identified, they strike a lower number of teachers. Stress and burnout levels are higher in older and divorced teachers who teach students in lower secondary education, with a weekly working time of 22/25 hours and perception of low efficacy. Evidence showed that teacher’s stress and burnout is variable and multidimensional. Nonetheless, it affects a significant number of special education teachers, which invites us to implement intervention programs on this professional group