Relationship between Professional Burnout of Teachers of Higher Education Institutions of Ukraine and Their Organizational, Professional and Socio-demographic Characteristics

Abstract

The research addresses the need to assess the degree of professional burnout of teachers of higher education institutions of Ukraine and to analyse connection between the level of teachers’ professional burnout and their organizational-professional (type of education, teaching experience) and socio-demographic (age, gender, marital status) characteristics. The article presents results of comparative analysis of major scientific approaches to the content of professional burnout: result of occupational stress; psychological defence mechanism; type of professional deformation of a personality; professional crisis and clinical disorder. The authors’ Questionnaire was employed as the main method of the study. The level of teachers’ professional burnout was explored via “Burnout Syndrome” in professions of the system “man-man” method by Maslach & Jackson. The study was conducted from 01 to 31 May 2020 and involved 302 faculty members of higher education institutions of Cherkasy region (central Ukraine). The findings signal that more than a third of the surveyed teachers experience a high level of expression of all components of professional burnout. The paper reports that the length of teaching experience has a positive effect on reducing most components of professional burnout; the level of emotional exhaustion decreases with age; women have a lower degree of emotional exhaustion than men. It is revealed that the actual socio-demographic characteristics of teachers (age, gender) have a greater impact on such a component of professional burnout as emotional exhaustion, while organizational and professional characteristics have a greater effect on such components of professional burnout as depersonalization and reduction of personal achievements.