A comparative study of burnout among teachers in a Youth Juvenile Rehabilitation center, an Ex model C school, and Public schools

Abstract

This study examined three schools; namely a Public, Ex model C, and a Youth juvenile rehabilitation school. A non-experimental survey design was used for this study. The sample consisted of 47 educators across the three types of schools. Data was collected by means of two instruments: a demographic questionnaire, and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) consisting of three subscales namely; Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and Diminished Personal Accomplishment. It was hypothesised that due to the stressful nature of work in disadvantaged and resource lacking schools, as well as the unstable and unsafe environment in certain schools, burnout among educators in Public and Youth juvenile rehabilitation schools will have a higher prevalence rate than educators in Ex model C schools. The study also aimed to identify which various educator demographic variables correlate with high burnout levels. Correlational results of the study found no significant relationships between the three subscales of the MBI and certain educator demographic variables across the three types of schools. The results of an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test revealed a borderline non-significant difference in the Emotional Exhaustion subscale between the Youth juvenile rehabilitation school and Public schools. Post Hoc comparison tests suggested Public school educators in the sample had the highest levels of burnout in terms of Emotional Exhaustion across the three types of schools, while educators in the Youth juvenile rehabilitation schools showed the lowest levels of burnout in terms of Emotional exhaustion. The results of the present study were discussed from the perspective of the Conservation of Resources theory, suggesting resource depletion as a central facet to burnout and how prolonged stress leads to burnout. Future qualitative studies exploring the etiology of burnout was thus recommended.