Self-efficacy and burnout in teachers of students with autism spectrum disorder
Introduction
A great deal of research is currently dedicated to stress and burnout in the teaching profession. Understanding these phenomena is essential given the key role teachers play in the success and development of students. In a study identifying the main factors of student achievement, Hattie, 2009, Hattie, 2012 found that teachers occupy the highest rank of importance for student success, above other factors like school programmes, teaching methods, or even the family environment of the students. Focusing on the wellbeing and health of teachers thus appears to be a major issue for any school system or society. Yet, the health of teachers in the specific context of school inclusion of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has rarely been investigated, despite being an increasingly common situation in France. This article investigates the mechanisms that may explain burnout in teachers of classes that include students with a disability, in particular ASD, in the context of school inclusion in France.
Burnout is a worrying phenomenon in the teaching professions (Chaplain, 2008; Kyriacou & Sutcliffe, 1977; McCarthy, Lambert, O’Donnell, & Melendres, 2009; Stoeber & Rennert, 2008). Research shows that 50% of teachers quit their profession before their sixth year of work, mainly because of a lack of professional satisfaction (Ingersoll & Smith, 2004). Rudow (1999) reports that 30% of teachers are in a state of burnout in Europe. In France, 70% of teachers worry about fatigue, tension, and overwork (Horenstein, 2006).
Burnout markedly affects the physical and mental health of teachers, as well as their mission of education, and thus impacts the overall functioning of society, in terms of costs to society and education levels of students (Bianchi, Boffy, Hingray, Truchot, & Laurent, 2013; Burke, Greenglass, & Schwarzer, 1996; Van Dick & Wagner, 2001; Jennings & Greenberg, 2009; Kovess-Masféty, Seville-Dedieu, Rios-Seidel, Nerrière, & Chan Chee, 2006). Teachers are exposed to many intense professional stressors (Jennett, Harris, & Mesibov, 2003) related to workload, conflictual work relationships, institutional malfunctioning, perceived inequity, and a lack of recognition, social support, and resources (Burke et al., 1996). A report by Horenstein (2006) drew up an inventory of stress factors related to teaching, one of which was the inclusion of pupils with a disability in classes.
School inclusion of pupils with disabilities requires teachers to implement important structural changes (e.g., educational design and organisation, class management) which significantly increase their workload. These requirements sometimes collide with a lack of knowledge or competence to deal with disabilities, or can be perceived as needing specific personal attributes (Busby, Ingram, Bowron, Oliver, & Lyons, 2012). All of these factors led Wisniewski and Gargiulo (1997) to assert that teachers who include pupils with disabilities in their classes have high levels of burnout, particularly when the pupils suffer from psychiatric illnesses.
Nevertheless, in France the “2005-102” Law (11th February 2005) and the “2013-595” Law (8th July 2013) set goals for school accessibility and inclusion of pupils with disabilities in classes. All teachers must include and teach these pupils just like pupils without disabilities. The gradual implementation of this law means that the number of teachers concerned continues to rise.
The difficulties presented by pupils with ASD are often severe and affect cognitive processes, social interactions and communication (Ruble & McGrew, 2013). Behavioural issues frequently emerge from these disabilities. These challenging behaviours and social impairments represent the principal determinants of workplace stress and mental ill health among teachers (Geving, 2007, Ingersoll and Smith, 2003, Major, 2012). A study by Baghdadli, Rattaz, and Ledésert (2011) highlights the main difficulties reported by teachers of pupils with ASD, notably social interaction problems for three-quarters of the teachers and challenging behaviours for half of them. Furthermore, the inclusion of children with ASD in a regular classroom requires teachers to adapt their usual teaching practices. Consequently, inclusive teachers are exposed to professional stress and burnout (Hastings & Brown, 2002; Lecavalier, Leone, & Wiltz, 2006; Ruble & McGrew, 2013). This is even truer when teaching pupils with ASD, which represents a complex professional situation in which the feeling of self-efficacy can be decisive for mental health preservation (Boyer and Gillespie, 2000, Jennett et al., 2003, Lecavalier et al., 2006).
Burnout is defined as a three-dimensional syndrome (Maslach, Jackson, & Leiter, 1996; Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001; Schaufeli, Maslach, & Marek, 1993). Emotional exhaustion is its central component and refers to the feeling of being exhausted and emotionally overwhelmed by work and work interactions. Depersonalisation is the interpersonal dimension of burnout and can be depicted by the emergence of negative and cynical attitudes towards clients or service users. Finally, personal accomplishment is the self-evaluation dimension of burnout and refers to an individual’s denigration and undervaluing of their own abilities, work, and potentially themselves. For example, a burnt out teacher will no longer be emotionally available to their students and can develop negative attitudes towards them. This teacher may consider that he/she can no longer bring about significant transformations and positive changes in the pupils (Maslach et al., 1996).
The emergence of burnout in individuals can be caused by situational factors −characteristics intrinsic to work and its organisation- and individual factors −demographic variables and personal characteristics- (Antoniou, Polychroni, & Vlachakis, 2006; Cano-Garcia, Padilla-Munoz, & Carrasco-Ortiz, 2005; Kovess-Masféty et al., 2006). In terms of situational factors in the teaching profession, workload is a major cause of burnout (Evers, Brouwers, & Tomic, 2002). In terms of individual factors, the protective role played by some personal characteristics has been revealed (Laugaa, Rascle, & Bruchon-Schweitzer, 2008). Perceived self-efficacy plays such a role as it limits the impact of stressful professional contexts on health (Brouwers & Tomic, 2000; Evers, Brouwers, & Tomic 2002; Evers, Tomic, & Brouwers, 2005). For example, when faced with a stressful professional situation, teachers will tend to imagine scenarios of success or failure depending on their perceived self-efficacy (Krueger & Dickson, 1994). As their perceived self-efficacy increases, teachers can find difficult situations more manageable through appropriate efforts, and can feel more capable of overcoming obstacles. On the contrary, the lower the feeling of self-efficacy, the more teachers will tend to perceive difficult situations as dead-ends.
Perceived self-efficacy is considered to be an internal factor, an essential individual characteristic, which explains aspects of psychological functioning (Bandura, 1997). It refers to the ability to implement change in one’s life and to exercise control over actions, beyond social, cultural, biological, and economic determinants. The feeling of self-efficacy not only orients the way opportunities and environmental obstacles are perceived, but also determines the steps consequently taken, the quantity of effort involved, and perseverance when facing difficulty or failure. Many studies have shown that perceived self-efficacy is related to a person’s health, success, and social integration (Jerusalem & Schwarzer, 1992).
Bandura (1997) argued that feelings of perceived self-efficacy were specific to one area of activity. Nevertheless, some researchers have theorised the existence of a generalised feeling of self-efficacy, which is described as a general feeling of confidence in one’s abilities to take on new and demanding situations. A generalised feeling of self-efficacy refers to a stable, overall feeling of competence in the management of a variety of stressful situations (Jerusalem & Schwarzer, 1992; Luszczynska, Scholz, & Schwarzer, 2005; Schwarzer, Schmitz, & Tang, 2000).
In the area of health, self-efficacy can predict the undertaking of beneficial or harmful health behaviours and represents a factor of vulnerability to stress (Bandura, 1997, Schwarzer and Hallum, 2008). Perceived self-efficacy has been introduced into many theoretical health models as a determinant of behaviour with the aim of understanding better its predictive potential for health issues such as burnout.
In a meta-analysis, Alarcon, Eschleman, and Bowling (2009) tested the relationship between a variety of personality traits and burnout and established a strong relationship between them. Specifically, the results showed a positive association between perceived self-efficacy and personal accomplishment, and a negative association between perceived self-efficacy and both emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation. These associations have been highlighted in various sectors: health (Aftab, Ali Shah, & Mehmood, 2012; Greenglass & Burke, 1988), engineering (Xanthopoulou, Bakker, Demerouti, & Schaufeli, 2009), and among university or secondary school students (Bilge, Tuzgöl Dost, & Cetin, 2014; Yang & Farn, 2005).
In the area of education, many studies have shown an association between perceived self-efficacy and the three dimensions of burnout. In fact, it is positively associated with personal accomplishment and negatively associated with teachers’ feelings of depersonalisation and emotional exhaustion (Devos, Bouckenooghe, Engels, Hotton, & Aelterman, 2007; Evers et al., 2005; Schwarzer et al., 2000; Tang, Au, Schwarzer, & Schmitz, 2001). Thus, there is clear evidence that perceived self-efficacy plays a protective role against burnout (Brudnik, 2009).
According to the transactional model of stress (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), transactional processes between an individual and their environment contribute to the direct or indirect prediction of health outcomes. The model’s structure distinguishes three types of factors: explanatory factors, such as social and personal antecedents (the individual’s baseline resources); psychological and physiological mediating processes (actions in the face of adversity); and health outcome factors. Applied to burnout, the transactional model describes a direct relationship between self-efficacy and burnout and an indirect relationship between these two factors, which transit through mediating processes such as perceived stress, perceived control, and coping strategies.
The stress experienced by an individual depends not only on objective situational characteristics but also on the way the situation is cognitively perceived and analysed by the individual as a threat, a loss, or a challenge (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). This appraisal is commonly referred to in the literature as “perceived stress”. For a teacher, the presence of a pupil demonstrating challenging behaviour is by definition a stressful situation. However, it can be perceived in different ways: as a threat (e.g., not reaching the end of the current class lesson; not being able to ensure pupil safety), as a loss (e.g., loss of authority in the classroom; loss of other pupils’ attention), or as a challenge (e.g., the opportunity to establish authority; implementation of new and original educational strategies to teach difficult pupils successfully).
Perceived stress is influenced both by the characteristics of the stressful situation and by an individual’s personality characteristics (including perceived self-efficacy), which can be described as stable, lasting, and personal (Carver and Connor-Smith, 2010, Jerusalem and Schwarzer, 1992, Park and Folkman, 1997).
Faced with a stressful situation, efforts of adjustment are made in order to withstand, reduce, or manage tension. Lazarus and Folkman (1984, p. 141) define coping strategies as a set of constantly changing cognitive and behavioural efforts exerted by an individual in order to manage internal and/or external demands that are perceived as consuming or exceeding available resources. Problem-focused coping strategies allow individuals to confront a situation directly (e.g., make an action plan and follow it). Emotion-focused coping strategies are attempts to manage emotional tension (e.g., wishing for a miracle). Social support seeking is a coping strategy in which efforts are made to obtain the sympathy and/or help of others (e.g., asking for advice). It is difficult to determine the efficacy of each type of coping strategy because they depend a great deal on the nature of the stressful situation (Suls & Fletcher, 1985). Thus, burnout can result from the failure of coping strategies implemented in given situations experienced by teachers (Jennett et al., 2003).
An individual’s disposition will influence the choice of coping strategies as well as their chances of success (Carver and Connor-Smith, 2010, Connor-Smith and Flachsbart, 2007, Van Heck, 1997). In fact, Park and Folkman (1997) suggest that perceived self-efficacy has a particularly strong impact on perceived stress as well as on coping strategies.
Most studies concerned with the health and wellbeing of teachers agree upon the stressful nature of the teaching job. In France, the inclusion policy requires teachers to include pupils with ASD in their class. In the absence of significant training, these teachers are more vulnerable to burnout (Emery & Vandenberg, 2010; Boujut, Dean, Grouselle, & Cappe, 2016). This study seeks to extend understanding of the phenomenon of burnout in teachers working with children with ASD, given the major difficulties these pupils present in social interactions and behaviour (Cappe, Smock, & Boujut, 2016). While many studies have systematically demonstrated the association between self-efficacy and burnout (Shoji et al., 2015), few have investigated the precise mechanisms that explain this relationship, and few seek to describe the specific link between self-efficacy, perceived stress, coping strategies, and burnout (Laugaa, Rascle, & Bruchon-Schweitzer, 2008; Schwarzer & Hallum, 2008). These relationships can be modelled using the transactional theory of stress in order to make predictions about health outcomes in a direct or indirect manner (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Based on this model, the present study aims to test the mediating role played by perceived stress and coping strategies in the relationship between perceived self-efficacy and burnout.
The hypothesis is that perceived self-efficacy predicts the different dimensions of burnout, that it positively predicts personal accomplishment and negatively predicts emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation; moreover, this relationship is hypothesised to be mediated by perceived stress and coping strategies.
Section snippets
Participants and procedure
Regular and specialized schools were contacted by the researchers through teachers known by the researchers (including teachers in the process of gaining a specialized teaching qualification whose dissertation topic was school inclusion of students with ASD) or through specialized internet forums. A call for participation was distributed in the schools or via email, explaining the procedure of the study and contact information of the researchers if interested. Contact made between researchers
Descriptive analyses
Descriptive statistics of the variables of interest as well as their bivariate correlations, including significance scores, are presented in Table 1. Correlation analyses showed that perceived self-efficacy was significantly correlated with two out of three dimensions of burnout. Perceived self-efficacy was negatively correlated with emotional exhaustion and positively correlated with personal accomplishment. Additionally, it was negatively correlated with stress perceived as a threat or loss,
Discussion
Since the implementation of the “2005-102” Law (11th February 2005) in France, inclusion in regular schools of children with disabilities has become compulsory. Teachers, whether they have received special training or not in dealing with paediatric psychopathology, are responsible for these children in their classes like any other pupil. Despite the current high prevalence of children with ASD in regular classes, this professional situation has rarely been investigated. Consequently, this study
Conclusion
To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the mediating effects of perceived stress and coping strategies on the relationship between perceived self-efficacy and burnout among teachers responsible for pupils with ASD. It sheds light on how to both improve teacher wellbeing and support their ability to manage these pupils. In fact, the quality of the teaching received by children with ASD is closely linked to teacher wellbeing (Cappe et al., 2017). The results of this study
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Funding
This project received funding from the Direction de l’évaluation, de la prospective et de la performance (DEPP; Directorate of Evaluation, Forecasting, and Performance) of the French Ministry of Education, the Commissariat général à l’égalité des territoires (CGET; General Commissioner for Equality of Territories), and the Défenseur des droits (DDD; Defender of Rights) in the context of the call for projects named “Equality of opportunities at school”.
The work was carried out in accordance with
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the teachers who participated in this study. They also express their thanks to Carol Robins for providing language assistance and proof reading the article.
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