Job dissatisfaction and burnout in secondary school teachers: student’s disruptive behaviour and conflict management examined

Abstract

Over the last few decades there has been an important consensus amongst both scholars and researchers as far as teacher occupational malaise is concerned on the leading role of both students’ disruptive behaviour and/or attitudes and teachers’ perception of the difficulty in managing conflicts. Few empirical attempts, however, have been aimed at elucidating what determinants -from either of the two fronts- have a greater prominence to this phenomenon. It is, therefore, the purpose of this study -using a sample of 1,386 teachers from Enseñanza Secundaria Obligatoria (Compulsory Secondary Education), to identify what students’ disruptive behaviour and/or attitudes as well as what sources of stress derived from conflict management best discriminate between teachers with different levels of job dissatisfaction and burnout. Results allow us to conclude that all variables validly discriminate as a function of dissatisfaction and burnout. Specifically, aspects such as dealing with the parents of disruptive students and students’ problematic behaviour (vandalism within the premises of the school, aggressions among students, verbal abuse and challenging behaviour against the teacher) have an incidence on all three facets of burnout.

Key words: Job dissatisfaction, burnout, secondary education teachers.