Measuring the influence of stress and burnout in teacher-child relationship

Most research finds socio-psychological aspects and the organism-environment relationship crucial in the onset of stress-related phenomena; equally important is the subject’s evaluation of stimuli. The Burnout syndrome is defined as a psychological state perceived as emotive breakdown and sense of depersonalization, featuring decreased effectiveness at work and a lower evaluation of one’s performance. At school, the most significant widespread stressors are issues in managing student behavior. However, in the literature few works treat stress and burnout as a specific function of the teacher-pupil relationship. This research will highlight the significant correlations existing between burnout, self-efficacy, students’ academic performance and the quality of pupil-teacher relationships. 37 primary-school teachers in north-west Italy were involved (age range: 27-57 yrs; M=44.76 yrs; SD=8.38 yrs). Tools used were a specially designed socio-personal questionnaire, the Maslach Burnout Inventory (M.B.I.) and the Classroom and School Context Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale (CSC-TSES), while teachers’ perception of the relationship with their pupils was investigated with STRS (Italian adaptation). Preliminary analysis reveals mutual influence between teachers' self-efficacy levels and degree of burnout; Conflict is the only dimension correlating significantly with burnout levels and self-efficacy in class management ability. Keywords: Teacher-child interaction, teacher burn out, self-efficacy, teacher effectiveness.