Sources of Teachers’ Stress and Burnout

An appraisal perspective of teacher burnout: Examining the emotional work of teachers
Mei-Lin Chang (2009).
Educational Psychology Review21, 193–218
Research review. Review of the literature on teacher burnout in relation to teachers’ appraisal of their own emotional exhaustion.

Teacher stress and health effects on teachers, students, and schools
Greenberg, T. ,BrownJ.L., Abenavoli, R.M. (2016).
Social Science & Medicine, 159(3)
Empirical study. Examination of the high levels of stress prevalent among teachers, their impact on students, and root causes connected to school organizations, job demands, work resources, and social emotional learning.

Teacher stress: Directions for future research
Kyriacou, Chris (2001).
Education Review, 53(1), 27-35.
Research review. Review of research findings on stress among teachers and possible areas to further explore as we try to better understand and address causes of teacher stress and burnout.

Emotional intelligence comes of age
Brackett, Marc & Cipriano, Christina. (2020).
Cerebrum : The Dana Forum on Brain Science.
Research review/Theory. Discussion of the centrality of emotional exhaustion and the skills and emotional intelligence needed to address it in the ongoing teacher burnout crisis.

Job Demands–Resources theory and self-regulation: New explanations and remedies for job burnout
Bakker, A. B., & de Vries, J. D. (2021).
Anxiety, Stress, & Coping,34(1), 1–21
Research review/Theory. Examines different causes of burnout and makes the case that it is mostly a consequence of poor working conditions and inadequate self-regulation.

Beyond demand–control: Emotional labour and symptoms of burnout in teachers
Naring, G., Briet, M. & Browers, A. (2007).
Work & Stress,20(4), 303–315.
Empirical study. Discusses the high level of emotional labour involved in the teaching profession and the related suppression of emotion that often leads to burnout.

Teachers’ burnout, depression, role ambiguity and conflict
Papastylianou, A., Kaila, M. & Polychronopoulos, M. (2009).
Social Psychology of Education12, 295–314
Empirical study. Examines the relationship between teacher burnout, depression, role ambiguity, and conflict.

Emotion display rules, emotion regulation, and teacher burnout
Chang, Mei-Lin (2020).
Frontiers Education, 5(90). doi: 10.3389
Empirical study. Study examines the relationship among teachers’ beliefs about emotional display rules in the classroom, how they approach emotion regulation, and feelings of burnout.

Stress, burnout, anxiety and depression among teachers: A scoping review
Agyapong, B., Obuobi-Donkor, G., Burback, L., & Wei, Y. (2022)
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19.
Empirical study. Examines factors in the prevalence of depression and anxiety among teachers, pointing in particular to the impact of insufficient administrative support.

How to manage depression as a teacher
Gillette, Hope. Healthline, February 8, 2023
Topic review. Reviews how depression might manifest itself for teachers and discusses the prevalence of depression in the teaching profession.

Is the road to burnout paved with perfectionism? The prevalence of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder in a clinical longitudinal sample of female patients with stress-related exhaustion
Reinhardt, P., Ellbin, S., Carlander, A., Hadzibajramovic, E., Jonsdottir, I. H., & Lindqvist Bagge, A. (2024).
Journal of Clinical Psychology, 80, 391–405.
Empirical study. Study examines the connection between obsessive‐compulsive tendencies and stress‐related exhaustion.

Is obsessive–compulsive personality disorder related to stress-related exhaustion?
Gulin, S., Ellbin, S., Jonsdottir, I.H. and Lindqvist Bagge. A.-S. (2021)
Brain and Behavior 11(6)
Empirical study. Examines the relationship between stress-related exhaustion and obsessive-compulsive personality traits.

Stress contagion in the classroom? The link between classroom teacher burnout and morning cortisol in elementary school students
Oberle, E., & Schonert-Reichl, K. A. (2016)
Social Science & Medicine (1982), 159, 30–37.
Empirical study. Study on the link between stress symptoms among teachers and students’ cortisol levels, suggesting a prevalent school-based burnout cascade.

Classroom management self-efficacy and burnout: A multivariate meta-analysis
Aloe, Ariel M.; Amo, Laura C.; Shanahan, Michele E. (2014).
Educational Psychology Review, 26 (1), 101-126.
Empirical study/Research review. Study on links between teachers’ classroom management self-efficacy and burnout, suggesting fundamental issues and aproaches in regard to the impact of student behavior on teachers.

Empty classrooms, abandoned kids: Inside America’s great teacher resignation
Walton, Alice and Pollock, Nic. The New York Times, November 18, 2022.
Popular press. NYT video about different reasons why teachers have quit, pointing to culture wars, the COVID pandemic, politics, and low wages.

People don’t want to be teachers anymore. Can you blame them?
Grose, Jessica. The New York Times, September 13, 2023.
Popular press. NYT opinion piece about possible reasons why teachers don’t want to teach anymore, including a lack of respect from society as a whole.

Students target teachers in group TikTok attack, shaking their school
Singer, Natasha. The New York Times, July 26, 2024.
Popular press. NYT article about how middle school students created fake TikTok accounts impersonating a teacher.

Learning from those who no longer teach: Viewing teacher attrition through a resistance lens
Glazer, Jeremy (2018).
Teaching and Teacher Education 74, 62-71.
Empirical study. Examines accounts by teachers who left the profesion as a way of resisting the existing power structure and, in so doing, in fact remain true to the ideals of teaching. 

Balancing being a mom and teacher
Doyle, Kristin (2024).
The Sassy Apple (Blog)
Blog post. In her blog post, the author talks about her “5 realizations” about the struggles she has had since becoming a “teacher mom.”

Seven ways to survive the teacher mom struggle
Brown, Brooke (2024).
Teach Outside the Box (Blog).
Blog post. In her blog post, the author discusses the struggles of balancing her multiple roles and emphasizes the importance of keeping a professional pace one can keep up with without feelings of guilt.

The Burnout Companion to Study and Practice: A Critical Analysis
Schaufeli, Wilmar and Enzmann, Dirk. 1998. Florida. CRC Press.
Provides a historical overview of the burnout syndrome. Reviews perceptions that burnout is particularly prevalent among certain professional groups - police officers, social workers, teachers, financial traders - and examines individual, inter- personal, workload, occupational, organizational, social, and cultural factors.

Status Anxiety
De Botton, Alain. 2004. New York. Pantheon Books
Discusses how today's global standards create anxiety about social status and how it has become increasingly important for people to work hard to achieve this status.

The Influence of Selected Factors on Teacher Burnout Among Middle School Teachers
McLauchlan, Kelly A., 2010.
Doctoral Dissertation. Northcentral University. UMI 3407616
Study on the impact of job satisfaction and demographic variables on burnout among a sample of middle school teachers.

A Mixed Methods Exploration of Perfectionism, Stress, and Burnout Among PreK–12 Music Educators in the United States
Paetz, Allison Mella, 2024.
Doctoral Dissertation. Department of Music,Case Western Reserve University.
Study on the prevalence of perfectionism among music educators as a source of stress and burnout.

Burnout Among French Immersion Teachers in British Columbia, Canada
Parrouty, Josiane , 2009.
Doctoral Dissertation. Capella University. UMI Number: 3368758
Study on teacher burnout in French immersion schools in British Columbia, with a focus on signs of depression and coping strategies among teachers.