e-Pedagogium 2017, 17(1):59-75 | DOI: 10.5507/epd.2017.006

Coping with Stress and Burnout Syndrome in Primary School Teachers

Irena Smetáčková, Eliška Vondrová, Petra Topková
doc. PhDr. Irena Smetáčková, Ph.D., Ing. Bc. Petra Topková, Mgr. Eliška Vondrová, Katedra psychologie, Pedagogická fakulta Univerzity Karlovy v Praze, Myslíkova 7, 110 00 Praha 1, E-mail: Irena.Smetackova@pedf.cuni.cz; petra.topkova@pedf.cuni.cz, vondrova.eli@email.cz

Burnout syndrome is a high-risk phenomenon, which impedes the quality of care of clients or rather pupils in helping professions including teachers. Since burnout syndrome develops as a result of long-lasting stress, for better understanding it is important to examine strategies of dealing with stress (coping strategies). The paper presents a research on relationship between teachers' burnout syndrome and coping strategies in primary schools (n = 107). The results show the predominance of positive coping strategies. However these do not correlate with burnout syndrome. On the contrary, there was found a correlation between negative strategies and burnout syndrome. A specific strategy, which can have both positive and negative impact, is social support. The perceiving cognitive support is protective factor.

Keywords: teachers, stress, burnout syndrome, coping strategies, social support

Published: February 1, 2017  Show citation

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Smetáčková, I., Vondrová, E., & Topková, P. (2017). Coping with Stress and Burnout Syndrome in Primary School Teachers. e-Pedagogium, 17(1), 59-75. doi: 10.5507/epd.2017.006
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