Emotional Intelligence and Positive Affect as Protective Factors Against Burnout in Syrian Teachers

• Main Author: Hallum, Suhair
• Other Authors: TU Chemnitz, Fakultät für Human- und Sozialwissenschaften
• Format: Doctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Universitätsbibliothek Chemnitz 2013
• Subjects: Emotional Intelligenz; Positive Affekt und Burnout; Emotional Intelligence; Positive affect and Burnout; ddc:100; Burn-out-Syndrom; Lehrtätigkeit; Syrien
• Online Access: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:ch1-qucosa-124489; http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:ch1-qucosa-124489; http://www.qucosa.de/fileadmin/data/qucosa/documents/12448/Dissertation_Suhair_Hallum.pdf; http://www.qucosa.de/fileadmin/data/qucosa/documents/12448/signatur.txt.asc

Bisherige Studien deuten an, dass Emotionale Intelligenz eine wichtige Rolle in der Lehrtätigkeit spielt. Sie hilft dem Lehrer bzw. der Lehrerin mit sich selbst, aber auch mit Schülern klarzukommen. Jedoch ist bislang noch weitgehend unklar, welche Mechanismen dem Zusammenhang zwischen Emotionaler Intelligenz und berufsnahen Kriterien zugrundeliegen. Zur Klärung dieser Frage soll die vorliegende Arbeit einen Beitrag leisten. Emotionale Intelligenz wird dabei in Anlehnung an Mayer und Salovey (1997) als Fähigkeit aufgefasst. Die vorliegende Arbeit umfasst drei Artikel. Der erste Artikel beschäftigt sich mit dem Zusammenhang zwischen wahrgenommener Emotionaler Intelligenz des Lehrers und Schülerverhalten im Klassenraum. Gefunden wurde, dass Lehrer über weniger unpassendes Verhalten ihrer Schüler berichten, wenn sie selbst über hohe emotionale Fähigkeiten verfügen. Hohe Emotionale Intelligenz scheint positiv verbunden zu sein mit der Tendenz, auf die Bedürfnisse der Schüler zu fokussieren, die wiederum weniger unpassendes Verhalten im Klassenraum zeigen. Im zweiten Artikel wird der Zusammenhang zwischen Emotionaler Intelligenz und Burnout untersucht. Proaktives Coping wurde als Mediator zwischen Emotionaler Intelligenz und Burnout angenommen. Daneben wurde geprüft, ob die wahrgenommene Unterstützung durch den Vorgesetzten den vermuteten Zusammenhang zwischen Emotionaler Intelligenz und Burnout und die Dimension moderiert. Die Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass Lehrer mit hoher Emotionaler Intelligenz deshalb weniger Burnout-Symptome zeigen, weil sie dazu tendieren, proaktives Coping als Strategie der Stressbewältigung zu nutzen. Sie können ihre Kompetenzen und Ressourcen offensichtlich situationsangemessen einsetzen, um emotional anspruchsvolle Situationen am Arbeitsplatz zu meistern. Darüber hinaus zeigt sich, dass wahrgenommene Unterstützung durch den Vorgesetzten den Zusammenhang zwischen Emotionaler Intelligenz und Burnout moderiert: Für Lehrer, die angaben, von ihrem Vorgesetzten unterstützt zu werden, zeigte sich der indirekte Effekt von Emotional Intelligenz auf wahrgenommene Leistungsfähigkeit über proaktives Coping deutlicher. Die Beziehung zwischen positivem und negativem Affekt, Arbeitszufriedenheit und Burnout ist Inhalt des dritten Artikels. Gefunden wurde, dass Lehrer mit hohem positiven Affekt zufriedener mit ihrer Arbeit sind als Lehrer, die negativen Affekt im Zusammenhang mit ihrer Arbeit berichten. Darüber hinaus war Arbeitszufriedenheit negativ mit dem Level an Burnout verbunden. Die Ergebnisse der Mediationsanalyse zeigen, dass Arbeitszufriedenheit den Zusammenhang zwischen Affekt und Burnout vermittelt. Zusammenfassend lässt sich also sagen, dass Lehrer mit hoher wahrgenommener Emotionaler Intelligenz erfolgreicher und zufriedener im Beruf sind und zudem eine höhere psychische Gesundheit aufweisen. Schüler von Lehrern mit hohen emotionalen Fähigkeiten scheinen deshalb weniger unpassendes Verhalten im Klassenraum zu zeigen, weil auf sie mehr geachtet und ihre Probleme und Bedürfnisse besser erkannt werden. Emotional intelligente Lehrer versuchen, Problemen im Klassenraum schon bei deren Entstehung zu begegnen, was wiederum dazu führen könnte, dass sie weniger Belastung erleben und langfristig weniger Burnoutsymptome zeigen. Dieser Prozess kann durch die Unterstützung des Vorgesetzten positiv beeinflusst werden. Daneben zeigt sich auch, dass Lehrer, die positiven Affekt gegenüber ihrer Arbeit erfahren, zufriedener mit ihrer Arbeitstätigkeit sind, was wiederum damit verbunden ist, dass jene Lehrer Burnout-Symptome in geringem Maße erleben. Daher scheint es gewinnbringend, in die Personalauswahl Emotionale Intelligenz als ein wichtiges Entscheidungskriterium einzubeziehen. Bestehende Qualifizierungsprogramme sollten zusätzlich auf eine Verbesserung der emotionalen Fähigkeiten abzielen. Weiteres Potential zur Intervention von Burnout besteht im Aufbau oder der Stabilisierung kooperativer Beziehungen zwischen Lehrer und Vorgesetztem. === Many teachers experience high levels of stress from their work, but not all of them suffer from burnout. Why are some teachers less likely to succumb to burnout than others? How can teachers avoid suffering from burnout and continue to have a good influence on the behavior of their students? One reason that some teachers are able to avoid burnout might be that these teachers embody personality characteristics such as emotional intelligence and proactive coping, and these characteristics may act as resources that counteract burnout. Another reason might be that they experience feelings of positive affect from their work and feel satisfied with their jobs. Perhaps this occurs because emotional intelligence helps teachers to understand the emotions of their students and to interact with them. Or perhaps these teachers are engaged in their jobs, and this might reduce the risk of burnout. Proactive coping helps teachers to use their resources to overcome their difficulties and to manage the demands they face, which aids in preventing burnout. Emotional intelligence can help teachers to control their emotions and be able to think effectively and use active strategies to find solutions to their problems. In my thesis, I expected that emotional intelligence would have a direct negative effect on burnout and an indirect effect on it through proactive coping. Furthermore, proactive coping was expected to be positively related to emotional intelligence and negatively related to burnout. Perceived supervisor support in the form of information, advice, and feedback provided by supervisors may help teachers to more actively deal with stressors. I assumed that perceived support from supervisors would moderate the influence of emotional intelligence on reduced personal accomplishment through proactive coping. However, teachers with positive affect tend to derive enjoyment from their work and to find their jobs interesting in spite of many difficulties. They are satisfied with their jobs, and this may prevent them from experiencing burnout. Positive affect is considered to be a stable personality variable, whereas job satisfaction is a temporal attitude toward one’s job; therefore, positive affect was expected to predict job satisfaction and to be positively related to it. Burnout is more of a job outcome that results from having excessive stress for a long time, whereas job satisfaction is an evaluative response to one’s job. Job satisfaction also means that a person enjoys his or her career and is engaged in it; people who are satisfied tend to feel energized and competent and are protected from being at risk of burnout. Thus, job satisfaction was expected to contribute to the prediction of burnout by being negatively linked to it. In addition, teachers who experience positive emotions while working as teachers tend to want to keep working as teachers despite any setbacks that they experience. They have positive attitudes about their jobs and are thus satisfied with them. Therefore, it was expected that positive affect would predict job satisfaction and would be positively related to it. Having positive emotions in the workplace can help teachers to like their work and to find pleasure in it. They then probably exhibit good job performance and this prevents them from suffering from burnout. Therefore, I assumed that job satisfaction would mediate the relation between positive affect and burnout. Little attention has been given to the relation between teachers’ emotional intelligence and student misconduct in the literature, but these factors may be linked. Emotionally intelligent teachers are aware of their own emotions; thus, they can regulate their own negative emotions so they can act as a role model for the students and influence the behavior of their students. Emotional intelligence also helps teachers to understand their students’ emotions, to address their students’ emotions in a positive fashion, and to establish warm relationships with their students. Emotionally intelligent teachers can understand their students and motivates these students so the teachers can focus on helping their students to accomplish their goals. These factors strengthen the relationships between the teachers and their students and have a positive impact on the behavior of the students. This thesis consists of three studies.The aim of the first study was to investigate the link between emotional intelligence and student misconduct through attention to student needs. The findings showed that attention to student needs mediates the emotional intelligence- student misconduct relation. Identifying the factors that are related to burnout is important as this can help to reduce the risk of such negative outcomes. Although many studies have been conducted on the resources that protect teachers from burnout, few studies have examined the relation between burnout and personal resources such as emotional intelligence and proactive coping. Therefore, I tested how these factors are related to burnout in direct and indirect ways. The role of perceived supervisor support has also been neglected. Thus, I tested the relation between emotional intelligence and burnout through proactive coping in the second study. In addition, I tested the moderating role of perceived supervisor support on the link between emotional intelligence and reduced personal accomplishment through proactive coping. The results showed that proactive coping mediated the impact of emotional intelligence on burnout, and perceived supervisor support moderated the influence of emotional intelligence on reduced personal accomplishment through proactive coping. Emotions in the work environment play an essential role in job satisfaction and seem to protect teachers from experiencing burnout. The purpose of the third study was to examine the relations between positive affect, job satisfaction, and burnout and to determine whether job satisfaction would mediate the association between positive affect and burnout. The results indicated that positive affect was positively related to job satisfaction and negatively related to burnout, and job satisfaction functioned as a mediator between positive affect and burnout.