Teachers' emotional exhaustion during the COVID-19 pandemic: Levels, changes, and relations to pandemic-specific demands.

We aimed to identify the levels of and changes in emotional exhaustion experienced by teachers and principals during the COVID-19 pandemic and pandemic-related stressors and resources. In a German sample of 2157 teachers and 374 principals, we found high levels and an increase of emotional exhaustion. Results from multi-group structural equation modeling analyses indicated that health concerns and workload were positively and social support negatively related to emotional exhaustion. Additional analyses of an open response question confirmed that teachers and principals experienced their work during the COVID-19 pandemic as predominantly stressful. These results indicate the importance of supporting both teachers and principals in reducing their exhaustion to help students overcome the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

[Emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction among teaching staff during the COVID-19 pandemic]. / Emotionale Erschöpfung und Berufszufriedenheit von Lehrpersonal während der COVID-19-Pandemie.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly changed the everyday professional life of teaching staff. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of the pandemic on teachers' emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction. METHODS: A sample of 2531 school administrators and teachers from North Rhine-Westphalia was recruited in October 2020. Changes in emotional exhaustion during the pandemic were directly measured with nine items of the Maslach Burnout Inventory and changes in job satisfaction with six items. Adjusted regression models were used to determine risk and protective factors associated with changes in emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction. RESULTS: Risk factors associated with both more frequently perceived symptoms of exhaustion and reduced job satisfaction were as follows: the additional workload during the pandemic, the stress of uncertainty, the perceived change in workload, concerns about the students, and being employed at an elementary school. A supportive school environment was associated with both fewer perceived symptoms of exhaustion and stable job satisfaction. DISCUSSION: From the perspective of the teaching staff, the COVID-19 pandemic was related to subjective changes in emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction. The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with higher emotional exhaustion for more than half of the teaching staff and with reduced job satisfaction for one in five teachers. Due to the study design, causal conclusions are not possible.

Burnout undermines empathising: do induced burnout symptoms impair cognitive and affective empathy?

Empathy is crucial for the quality of social interactions and thus highly relevant in human service professions. At the same time, people belonging to this occupational group are especially vulnerable to developing burnout symptoms. With this study, we aimed to investigate the causal link between burnout symptoms and empathy by using a novel experimental design. Our participants (N = 355; 44.5% women; Mage = 36.37) filled out an online questionnaire; in an autobiographical memory task, the experimental group retrieved previous burnout experiences, whereas one control group retrieved a neutral memory and another control group received no intervention. After measuring current burnout symptoms as a manipulation check, we measured the cognitive and affective empathy of all participants. Findings indicate that the experimental group reported significantly higher burnout symptoms compared to control groups, validating our intervention method. Furthermore, we found that the experimental group scored lower on one of the cognitive empathy measures, suggesting negative effects on the relational skills of burned-out individuals. Results are discussed with regard to ecological validity and implications.

Assertiveness and adaptation: Prospective teachers' social competence development and its significance for occupational well-being.

BACKGROUND: Difficult social interactions with students are reported to be among the main stressors of beginning teachers, and although social competence has been suggested to represent a vital resource for their transition into practice and early-career adaptation, this assumption has rarely been empirically studied. AIM: We conducted two studies to investigate the predictive validity and development of prospective and beginning teachers' social competence. In Study 1, we examined, whether social competence predicts beginning teachers' emotional exhaustion. Study 2 investigated whether university teacher training contributes to social competence development among prospective teachers. SAMPLE: The samples of both studies are based on large-scale assessments. Participants in Study 1 were 1,758 beginning teachers who had been tracked since their entry into university teacher training. Study 2 included 831 prospective teachers who were surveyed over a total period of two years. METHODS: Data were analysed utilizing a structural equation modelling approach (Study 1) and latent change score modelling (Study 2). RESULTS: The results of Study 1 revealed that social competence negatively predicts emotional exhaustion. Further, beginning teachers' reports of classroom management functioned as a mediator within that relationship. According to the findings in Study 2, prospective teachers showed no significant enhancements of social competence within one year of university teacher training. However, there was a significant change considering the two-year interval. CONCLUSIONS: Social competence, as a predictor of occupational well-being, may constitute one important resource for the early-career adaptation of beginning teachers. However, efforts to promote social competence within university teacher training should be increased.

Is emotional exhaustion only the result of work experiences? A diary study on daily hassles and uplifts in different life domains.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Emotional exhaustion is considered to be the key symptom of burnout. Although it has been defined that emotional exhaustion rather results from work-related experience than from other life domains, this has rarely been studied empirically. The study aimed to investigate the role of different life domains in predicting emotional exhaustion. More precisely, we examined whether daily uplifts and hassles from different life domains were related to emotional exhaustion beyond work-related uplifts and hassles. DESIGN: A diary study was conducted over the course of 14 consecutive days. METHOD: 141 beginning teachers provided information about their daily hassles and uplifts as well as their daily emotional exhaustion. RESULT: Results of multilevel analyses showed that work-related uplifts were negatively and work-related hassles were positively related to emotional exhaustion. Additionally, private uplifts were associated with a statistically significant decrease and private hassles with an increase in emotional exhaustion beyond work-related events. CONCLUSION: Although the variance in emotional exhaustion that was explained by private events was small, the present study suggests that burnout symptoms might not be completely independent from individuals' daily lives outside work.

Sense of Belonging as an Important Factor in the Pursuit of Physics: Does It Also Matter for Female Participants of the German Physics Olympiad?

This paper focuses on stereotype threat and its effects on sense of belonging in the German Physics Olympiad science competition. Participants completed questionnaires about sense of belonging, stereotype endorsement, interest, and self-concept in physics, as well as about value and success expectations of studying physics in college. Female participants who endorsed negative stereotypes about female talent for physics felt less sense of belonging to physics. This effect did not manifest for male participants. Sense of belonging to physics significantly predicted value and success expectations for studying physics in college beyond what is predicted by interest and self-concept in physics. These findings suggest that sense of belonging is influenced by stereotype threat, which was shown to cause gender differences in science. Nevertheless, sense of belonging could be included into the expectancy-value theory based on its predictive impact on value and success expectations of studying physics.

Measuring Teachers' Social-Emotional Competence: Development and Validation of a Situational Judgment Test.

Teachers' social-emotional competence is considered important in order to master the social and emotional challenges inherent in their profession and to build positive teacher-student relationships. In turn, this is key to both teachers' occupational well-being and positive student development. Nonetheless, an instrument assessing the profession-specific knowledge and skills that teachers need to master the social and emotional demands in the classroom is still lacking. Therefore, we developed the Test of Regulation in and Understanding of Social Situations in Teaching (TRUST), which is a theory-based situational judgment test measuring teachers' knowledge about strategies for emotion regulation and relationship management in emotionally and socially challenging situations with students. Results from three studies (N = 166 in-service teachers, N = 73 in-service teachers, N = 107 pre-service teachers) showed satisfactory internal consistency for both the emotion regulation and relationship management subtests. Furthermore, confirmatory factor analyses supported the differentiation between the two facets of social-emotional competence. Regarding convergent validity, results from Study 3 revealed a positive association between the profession-specific TRUST and pre-service teachers' general emotional intelligence. Furthermore, small to moderate correlations with the Big Five personality traits provided evidence for the discriminant validity of TRUST. In Studies 1 and 2, we found evidence for a correlation with external criteria, that is, teachers with higher test scores reported providing more emotional support for students and having better teacher-student relationships. For teachers' occupational well-being, we found a link with symptoms of depersonalization and job satisfaction, but none for emotional exhaustion. We will discuss the use of TRUST in research, for the evaluation of interventions, in teacher education, and professional development and will illustrate ideas for enhancing the tool.

What makes a good teacher? The relative importance of mathematics teachers' cognitive ability, personality, knowledge, beliefs, and motivation for instructional quality.

BACKGROUND: Teachers differ substantially in their instructional performance in the classroom. Thus, researchers and policymakers are interested in how these differences can be explained and how the instruction provided by low-performing teachers can be improved. Previous research has focused either on generic (cognitive ability and personality) or profession-specific (professional knowledge, beliefs, and motivation for teaching) teacher characteristics as predictors of instructional quality but their relative importance has not yet been tested. AIMS: Hardly any studies have combined central generic and profession-specific variables in ascertaining their relative importance for instructional quality. In the present study, we seek to close this research gap. SAMPLES: We investigated 209 German mathematics teachers and their 4,672 students attending grades 7-10 (13- to 16-year-old students). METHODS: Teacher characteristics (cognitive ability, personality, professional knowledge, beliefs about, and enthusiasm for teaching) were assessed using standardized tests and self-report measures. Instructional quality (learning support, classroom disruptions, and cognitive activation) was rated by the students. RESULTS: Using structural equation modelling, we found extraversion, enthusiasm for teaching, and pedagogical/psychological knowledge to be significant predictors of learning support (R2  = .31) and conscientiousness and enthusiasm for teaching to be significant predictors of classroom discipline (R2  = .21). We did not find significant predictors for cognitive activation. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate the relative significance of generic and profession-specific teacher variables for instructional quality. Overall, a substantial amount of variance in instructional quality is explained by teacher characteristics.

Assessing post-event processing after social situations: a measure based on the cognitive model for social phobia.

In their cognitive model of social phobia, Clark and Wells (1995) described a process called post-event processing that is characterized by prolonged ruminative and negative thinking about a past social event. Referring to this concept, Rachman and colleagues (2000) developed a questionnaire that has been used in several studies subsequently (Post-Event Processing Questionnaire (PEPQ)). Our aim was to examine a German version of the PEPQ and, where necessary, modify this measure. In Study 1 (N=130 students), we inspected the psychometric properties of the German version of the PEPQ. According to the item analyses, problematic items were identified and eliminated or reformulated. To map aspects of post-event processing that were missing in the original questionnaire, new items were developed. In Study 2, the psychometric properties of the revised instrument were analyzed in a sample of students (N=268).The revised instrument showed excellent internal consistency and a meaningful pattern of correlations with anxiety, depression, and dysfunctional self-consciousness. With regard to the factorial structure of the construct, our data suggest that a four-factorial model may be more appropriate than the one-dimensional structure proposed by Rachman and colleagues.