Teacher burnout and turnover intent

• Published in: Australian educational researcher Vol. 47; no. 3; pp. 477 - 500
• Main Authors: Rajendran, Natalia, Watt, Helen M. G., Richardson, Paul W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.07.2020; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Behavior Problems; Burnout; Conflict; Education; Educational Policy and Politics; Educational Psychology; Elementary School Teachers; Emotional response; Employee turnover; Faculty Mobility; Faculty Workload; Family Work Relationship; Fatigue (Biology); Foreign Countries; Intention; Job satisfaction; Learning; Middle School Teachers; Predictor Variables; Primary secondary education; Professions; Secondary School Teachers; Stress; Stress Variables; Structural equation models; Student Behavior; Students; Teacher Burnout; Teacher mobility; Teacher Persistence; Teacher stress; Teacher welfare; Teaching; Teaching and Teacher Education; Teaching Conditions; Well being; Women; Work life balance; Workloads; Australia; Teachers; Work–family conflict; Emotional exhaustion; JD-R model; Turnover intent
• ISSN: 0311-6999; 2210-5328
• DOI: 10.1007/s13384-019-00371-x

Correlates of turnover intent among primary (N = 580) and secondary (N = 675), male (N = 254) and female (N = 999) teachers, were examined through the lens of the job demands-resources (JD-R) model. Multigroup structural equation modelling indicated that job demands (workload, student misbehaviour), and the personal demand of work-family conflict, were positively associated with emotional exhaustion, the core dimension of burnout. All demands indirectly related to turnover intent via emotional exhaustion. Among all teacher groups, no significant differences were found in level of emotional exhaustion or turnover intent, and only mild stress was reported as a result of student misbehaviour. Work-family conflict was the strongest predictor of emotional exhaustion for male and female teachers. Results suggest the JD-R as a promising theory for use in explaining job-related outcomes among Australian teachers, and that personal demands should be examined in addition to job demands within it. [Author abstract]