Browsing by Subject "burnout"

Teacher burnout has negative consequences on an individual, transactional and organizational levels between teachers and pupils. Compared to other fields, the educational field experiences higher levels of burnout. Previous studies indicate that burnout is connected to turnover, withdrawal, pupils’ motivation, and problems in the working community in addition to the individual’s health. The burnout symptoms have been found to differ in gender, career phase, academic level, socio- economic level of the neighborhood and organization size. Previous research has found that burnout crossover happens from an individual to another across the teacher community. The buffering and exposing attributes concerning the crossover of teacher burnout have been studied rather little. The aim of this research is to discover which individual, transactional and organizational attributes could potentially buffer or expose to the crossover of burnout. Research data was gathered as a part of a wider, national research project called School Matters by the members of the Learning and Development in School research group (Pietarinen, Pyhältö & Soini, 2017). The participants were selected from six different areas. Altogether 1531 teachers from primary, secondary and combined schools completed the questionnaire. The teachers were divided into groups based on their gender, academic level, the level of socio-economic status (SES) of the school neighborhood, career phase and school size. Individual, transactional and organizational factors’ connection to the burnout symptoms were examined through correlations, t-test and One-way analysis of variance. Results indicate that on average the teachers are doing quite well and experience quite moderate levels of burnout. Even so, quite many of them reported higher and lower levels of the symptoms. The symptoms correlate positively with each other. Based on the research findings it can be suggested that individual attributes, including male gender and higher number of years in the profession, buffer from the crossover of burnout. In addition, the higher socio-economic status (SES) of the school neighborhood – a transactional attribute – and smaller school size – an organizational attribute – also act as buffers. On the other hand, exposing attributes include the female gender, less years in the profession, lower socio-economic status of the school neighborhood and large school size. The result may be generalized to the Finnish teaching community as a whole because the research population was large and the geographical distribution of the population was comprehensive.

There has been increasing research attention on wellbeing of students in higher education both in Finland and internationally. Because of its goal-oriented nature, higher education resembles working in many ways. Thus, research on students´ wellbeing has started utilizing concepts derived from occupational research. Burnout and study engagement are concepts that are being used in research on both lower educational levels and higher education. Burnout describes feelings of exhaustion, cynicism and inadequacy experienced when demands of studying exceed available resources. Engagement on the other hand means feeling vigorous, dedicated and absorbed in studying and arises when demands and resources are better balanced. The goal of this thesis was to increase understanding of social resources that can guard against the negative effects of demands and foster engagement in higher education. It investigated how social support, guidance and counselling from the educational institution and sense of belonging to studying related groups are related to burnout and engagement experienced by students. The data for this study was the Finnish Student Health Service´s Student Health Survey from 2016, which is a representative sample of students in universities and universities of applied sciences in Finland (N=3110). Burnout symptoms were measured using the SBI-9 measure and engagement using the Schoolwork Engagement Scale. The total scores on these two scales were analyzed together with social support, guidance and counselling and sense of belonging to studying related groups. Pearson´s correlation coefficients were obtained to reveal the bivariate associations of these variables followed by two hierarchical regression analyses on burnout and engagement individually. All of the social resources were included as predictors in these models and the stage of studies, gender and feeling of being in the right field of study were controlled for as background variables. The results supported both hypotheses and existing literature. It was found that those students who were able to talk about their matters with someone, had received guidance to their studies and felt like they belong to studying related groups had lower levels of burnout symptoms. Similarly, students with sufficient social resources were more engaged in their studies. The results indicate that social resources are an important factor in wellbeing of higher education students. Future research should continue to further study these resources using more accurate measures incorporating different types of social support or different groups in the educational context.

Objective: Both stress-related exhaustion and depression have previously been associated with a decline in cognitive performance, but there is a lack of evidence on whether these conditions have different associations with different cognitive domains and whether they have additive effects on cognitive performance. Furthermore, very little is known about the cognitive effects of chronic stress-related exhaustion. Consequently, the aims of this study were to 1) examine the associations between current stress-related exhaustion and cognitive performance, 2) investigate whether different developmental trajectories of stress-related exhaustion are differently associated with cognitive performance, 3) compare the association between stress-related exhaustion and cognitive performance to the relationship between depressive symptoms and cognitive performance, 4) examine if individuals with comorbid stress-related exhaustion and depression have lower cognitive performance than individuals with at most one of these conditions (i.e., whether clinical stress-related exhaustion and clinical depression might have additive effects on cognitive performance). Methods: The data used in the study was a Finnish population-based sample of six cohorts born between 1962 and 1977 from the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study. Stress-related exhaustion was assessed using the Maastricht Questionnaire, depressive symptoms with the Beck Depression Inventory, and cognitive performance with four subtests of the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery, measuring visuospatial associative learning, reaction time, sustained attention, and executive functions. Cognitive performance and depressive symptoms were assessed in 2012, and stress-related exhaustion in 2001, 2007, and 2012. Participants were 35 to 50 years old in 2012. Linear associations between stress-related exhaustion and cognitive performance (N = 905) and depressive symptoms and cognitive performance (N = 904) were examined by conducting multivariate regression analyses. Age, sex, socioeconomic status, and parents’ socioeconomic status were controlled in the regression models. Additionally, multivariate analyses of variance were performed to investigate the different developmental trajectories of stress-related exhaustion and their relation to cognitive performance (N = 541) and the associations of comorbid stress-related exhaustion and depression with cognitive performance (N = 1273). Results and conclusion: The main finding was that high stress-related exhaustion is associated with slower reaction times, but not with performance in spatial working memory, visuospatial associative learning, or executive functions. Ongoing, chronic stress-related exhaustion was more strongly associated with slower reaction times than short-term exhaustion experienced years ago. Compared to depressive symptoms, high stress-related exhaustion was associated with slower reaction times also when subclinical cases were included, whereas only clinical levels of depressive symptoms had an association with slower reaction times. There were no differences in cognitive performance between individuals with only stress-related exhaustion or depression and those with comorbid stress-related exhaustion and depression, which supports the notion that these conditions do not have additive effects on cognitive performance. These findings add to the existing evidence of the cognitive effects of stress-related exhaustion in the general population and have several practical implications. Further research is needed on the topic, preferably with longitudinal designs, more comprehensive cognitive measures, and clinical assessment of the psychiatric symptoms.

This master’s thesis includes two sections: the present summarizing report and the article manuscript. The purpose of the study is to explore the benefits of an acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)-based intervention course to university students’ well-being, using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The COVID-19 pandemic has decreased university students’ well-being and increased their risk of burnout. The declined state of student well-being calls for measures in exploring ways of promoting student well-being and preventing study-related burnout. The intervention course aimed to increase students’ psychological flexibility and organized studying skills, as means to positively impact their well-being and studying. A total of 189 participated in the study in the spring of 2021. Students’ risk of burnout was measured pre- and post-intervention, to statistically define whether students experienced that the course impacted their risk of burnout. To explore the course benefits in depth, students’ written reflective reports post-intervention were analyzed using abductive content analysis. The results were statistically compared according to the risk of burnout group assigned pre-intervention. The results showed that the intervention course led to a positive change in students' risk of burnout. The content analysis revealed seven main categories of benefits of the course: 1. improved general well-being, 2. improved self-knowledge, 3. increased psychological flexibility, 4. improved study practices and study motivation, 5. increased self-compassion, 6. gained peer-support, and 7. improved organized studying. These benefits were experienced by students regardless of their initial risk of burnout. The study highlights the potential of ACT-based intervention courses in improving the well-being and studying skills of university students, suggesting a need for further research on burnout prevention through such measures. The prospective publication channel for the research article manuscript is Research in Higher Education by Springer.

The aim of my research is to understand work engagement and it's construction in the hospitality field. A central target of my interest is to observe how well employees in hotel and restaurant business feel and which factors generate work engagement and which factors prevent it's development among the employees in the field. Work engagement is a dimension of work well-being. It increases the well-being of employees and their coping at work. The meaning of work well-being emphasizes before anything in the work of front line employees, where the working conditions are challenging and working hours are varying. Work engagement's study is about what makes one enjoy his/her work and feel well. It can be seen as the antipode of burnout. The research data is formed of 24 scientific studies of work engagement and/or burnout in the context of hotel and restaurant field. As my research method I have used the systematic literature review. My research findings pointed out that previous research has been more concentrated in the antecedents and the consequences of work engagement rather than analyzing how engaged to work employees are. Main resources that influence on the construction of work engagement were personal traits and characteristics of work or workplace all together. These resources reduce the load of work related requirements and generate work engagement. Organizations need to invest into the work well-being of their employees by adding the supply and availability of resources. Although superiors can influence more on the characteristics of work and workplace they should not forget the personal traits of employees. It is important that superiors are aware of the factors relating to work engagement to be able to support these factors if possible.

The aim of this study was to examine the validity and reliability of the social engagement scale among students at Finnish comprehensive schools. Another aim was to examine the interaction effect of social engagement and introversion on self-esteem, schoolwork engagement and burnout. The purpose of this was to understand how introverts with higher social engagement perform in terms of their self-esteem, schoolwork engagement and burnout in comparison to introverts with lower social engagement. The theory of this study focused on social engagement, which has been suggested the fourth dimension of school engagement. Social interactions help students’ learning, and enhance critical thinking and problem solving. Introversion was selected for this study as introverts are usually stereotypically seen as unsocial and unwilling to work with other people. The data for this study were collected through questionnaires of the Mind the Gap Research Group of the University of Helsinki in 2013–2016. Sample size was 862 students. The analytical methods were confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and hierarchical multiple regression. The results indicated that a two-factor model best fit the social engagement scale. These two dimensions were named the social engagement approach and social engagement avoidance. When examining self-esteem, the interactions between the social engagement approach and introversion were significant. This suggests that introverts with high social engagement have higher self-esteem than introverts with low social engagement. Interaction terms for the social engagement approach and social engagement in terms of schoolwork engagement and burnout were not found.

Previous research has suggested that job demands and resources are related to teacher’s wellbeing. The purpose of this master’s thesis is to find out how inclusion in classrooms is connected to classroom teacher’s work-related wellbeing. In this thesis it is tried to find out what kind of demands inclusion brings to teachers and what kind of resources teachers have. In addition the aim is to find out which factors are especially weakening techer’s wellbeing and how they affect it and which factors support teacher wellbeing. This thesis was carried out as qualitative research. The qualitative data was obtained through half-structured interviews. There were four interviewees and all of them worked in inclusive classrooms as classroom teachers. The data was analysed with content analysis. The job demands of inclusion and the resources the teachers have were categorized as institutional, classroom and personal demands and resources. The demands factors that weakened the teachers wellbeing especially were the feeling of insufficiency combined with a too challengin job. This consisted of too many students with special needs and too few resources, especially not enough adults in the classroom. In addition behavioral problems and excessive workload by paperwork as well as more multiprofessional cooperation and parent-teacher meetings were such factors. Resources and factors supporting teacher wellbeing included especially good school climate, support from colleagues. administration and parents, teamwork and simply enough appropriate resources. In addition, smaller groupsize was considered as a resource. Teachers’ weakened wellbeing demonstrated as e.g. sleeping problems, tearfulness, being tense, disengagement and as feelings of despair and anxiety. Classroom teachers felt that they were less excited about their work and felt their work motivation decreasing when their wellbeing was compromised. In conclusion, inclusion in classrooms may weaken teacher wellbeing if the resources and demands do not match.

Introduction Young adulthood is an important stage of life. Health development and problems during young adulthood have impact on life later on (Koskinen, Kestilä, Martelin & Aromaa, 2005). Well- and ill-being during studying and working have been studied from the perspective of burnout and engagement. Burnout is defined as a studying- or work-related prolonged stress-disorder (Maslach, Schaufeli & Leiter, 2001; Salmela-Aro, 2009), while engagement is a positive, long-term affective-cognitive state (Schaufeli, Salanova, González-Romá & Bakker, 2002). According to the demands-resources -model, in studying and work, burnout leads to ill-being while engagement leads to well-being (Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner & Schaufeli, 2001; Salmela-Aro & Upadyaya, 2014a; Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004). Apparently it has not been previously studied, whether it is possible to experience burnout and engagement in leisure-time like it is in studying and working. The main goal of this study was to identify burnout- and engagement groups using the person-centered approach (Bergman & Anderson, 2010) in studying or working young adults, who could differ in terms of background-, health- and welfare-factors. The secondary goal was to explore the structure of burnout and engagement in leisure-time of the same participants and also find out what kind of factors were involved. Methods This study is part of the Finnish Educational Transitions Studies (FinEdu) -longitudinal study, using the latest questionnaire material collected in 2013–2014. Only students and employees were included in the analyzed data (N=924, women=562, primary students=317, employees=607), their age varying from 24 to 29 years of age. Burnout and engagement groups in studying and work were identified through latent profile analysis. The structure of burnout and engagement in leisure-time was studied with explorative factor analysis. The acquired groups along with burnout and engagement in leisure-time were compared to different background-, health- and welfare-factors. Results The latent-profile-analysis identified three burnout- and engagement groups in studying and work. The engaged (56%) experienced engagement and minor burnout in their studies or work. They also had the best state of health and well-being. The burned-out (14%) experienced burnout in their studies or work and had low engagement. Their group also had the worst state of health and well-being. The disengaged (30%) reminded the burned-out, but did not have as low experience of engagement or as high burnout as the burned-out. The disengaged placed in between the engaged and the burned-out in terms of health and well-being. In leisure-time, both burnout- and engagement dimensions were distinguishable through explorative factor analysis. Burnout in leisure-time was connected to a worse state of health and lesser well-being, while engagement linked to better health and higher well-being. In addition, burnout and engagement in leisure-time was connected to the burnout- and engagement groups in studying and work. Discussion Young adults experience burnout and engagement in their studies, work and leisure time. According to this study, half of the students experience more engagement than burnout in their studies or work. Alarmingly, the other half experiences more burnout than engagement in their studies or work which is also linked to burnout and engagement experienced in leisure-time. Burnout and engagement are linked to many ill- and well-being factors, thus having a great impact on both the individual and the society. Therefore, it is important that the study of these phenomena is pursued.

Olen tehnyt kirjallisuuskatsauksen opettajien stressiä ja uupumusta käsitelleistä tutkimuksista. Tutkimukseni tehtävänä oli kuvata opettajan työssä esiintyviä keskeisiä stressiä ja uupumusta aiheuttavia tekijöitä sekä niiden vastaisia, lieventäviä tekijöitä. Olen tarkastellut opettajan työn sisäisiä, eli opettajista itsestään lähtöisin olevia, sekä ulkoisia, eli opettajien vaikutusvallan ulkopuolisia stressi- ja uupumustekijöitä. Pyrin myös selvittämään, liittyykö suomalaisten opettajien kokemaan stressiin ja uupumukseen jotain erityispiirteitä ja poikkeavatko ne ulkomaalaisten opettajien kokemuksista. Lisäksi tutkimuksen hypoteesina oli, että viimeisen vuosikymmenen aikana opettajien stressin ja uupumuksen kokemuksissa olisi nähtävissä joitakin yhteiskunnan-, teknologian- tai koulutusjärjestelmän kehityksen aiheuttamia muutoksia. Tämän vuoksi tarkastelin vain uudempia, ajankohtaisia tutkimustuloksia. Aineistoni keräsin systemaattisesti tarkan tiedonhaun ja sitä ohjanneen kriteeristön avulla. Systemaattiselle kirjallisuuskatsaukselle tyypillisesti, pyrin arvioimaan aineistoni laatua ja referoimaan siitä esiin nousseita tuloksia objektiivisesti. Laatimalla aineiston hakua varten tarkkarajaiset hakutermit ja -kriteerit, tutkimustulosten toistettavuus parani. Lopulta aineistoon valikoitui 10 opettajien stressiä ja uupumusta eri näkökulmista käsitellyttä tutkimusta. Aineistosta esiin nousseet tulokset olivat yhdenmukaisia. Ne osoittivat, että opettajien persoonallisuuden piirteet olivat yhteydessä heidän kokemaansa stressin ja uupumuksen määrään. Ulospäinsuuntautuneet ja seuralliset opettajat näyttivät kärsivän harvemmin liiallisesta stressistä tai uupumuksesta. Opettajan työn ulkoiset stressi- ja uupumustekijät olivat myös hyvin samankaltaisia riippumatta tutkimuksiin osallistuneiden opettajien maantieteellisestä sijainnista. Suomalaiset opettajat kertoivat siis samoista stressin aiheuttajista kuin esimerkiksi romanialaiset opettajat. Opettajan työn keskeisimmät ulkoiset stressin ja uupumuksen aiheuttajat olivat koulun hallinto ja koulutusjärjestelmälliset rakenteet, koulun ilmapiiri, oppilaat sekä vanhemmat. Teknologian kehitys ei näyttänyt lisäävän opettajan työn kuormitusta, mutta koulutusjärjestelmän muutokset olivat usein opettajien stressin aiheuttajana.

The camera recognises the face, the bank card connects to the payment terminal, and the database aggregates the consumer profile. Digital and cybernetic machines change society, but they also change the production premises. For a code to connect with another code, the unclear must become clear and the indefinite definable. The trend, however, is not recent: for instance, a bureaucrat has demanded to fill out forms for a long time. Likewise, language has always required syntax. Such productions demand a component, and it increasingly determines the terms of the overall production. I examine the social, affective, and ecological effects of such production premises (definability, reliability, predictability), and I assert that their unifying factor is a crisis of creativity. My essay examines the possibility of creativity in a society produced under componential logic. I address this issue by applying Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi's dichotomy of connective and conjunctive concatenations. Connection refers to the definable, repeatable, and predictable (i.e., componential) production. Conjunction, in turn, refers to the production of unrepeatable, ambiguous and open-ended qualities. I assert that the crisis of creativity unwraps when the poetic openness gets closed, contradictions resolved, and the undefinables defined. In other words, when connection overtakes conjunction. In the increasingly connective society, general production turns repeatable and predictable, and poetic flights and qualitative mutations become rare. Interestingly enough, qualitative mutations are a prerequisite for capitalism, as capitalism must constantly expand on new territories. It needs to establish new markets, as Rosa Luxembourg has theorised, and to capture decoded desire, an argument known from Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. Therefore, a paradox determines the social system: on the one hand, capitalism demands qualitative mutations for its expansion, but on the other hand, the componentised production slows the creative production down. I argue that by examining this contradiction, we can understand some of the most central pathologies of modern capitalism, such as burning out, depression and concentration disorders. Namely, modern capitalist culture has produced the spectacle to substitute qualitative mutations with a large amount of quickly consumable ephemeral production.