Date of Award
8-2024
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy - School Psychology
Department
Human Services
First Advisor
Elaine Turner
Second Advisor
Luis Aguerrevere
Third Advisor
Valerie Weed
Fourth Advisor
Amanda Rudolph
Abstract
Teachers are crucial to many facets of life (Güneyli, 2012). Due to current occupational requirements and emotional demands, many educational professionals experience burnout (Roethler, 2021). Burnout occurs when daily occupational challenges overpower one's ability to maintain a healthy emotional state and meet professional demands (Roethler, 2021). Previous studies have been conducted on the levels of teacher stress and burnout (Agyapong et al., 2022; Chang, 2009; Lindqvist et al., 2021; Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2021), while few studies explored the impact of administrative support and its contribution to burnout within the teacher population (Howard et al., 2017; Jacob, 2007; McCray-Davis, 2022; Tickle et al., 2011). Therefore, this dissertation's purpose was to create and pilot a measure of perceived administrative support to analyze the stress and burnout levels of K-12 teachers. It was hypothesized that teachers with higher levels of perceived support would report lower levels of stress and burnout; however, this was not the case. The study was released in two phases: Phase 1 was the determination of the psychometric properties of the Perceived Administrative Support Scale (PASS) and the piloting of the scale. Phase 2 used the piloted measure to compare reported levels of stress and burnout experienced by teachers.
The study's first phase included a pilot study with an exploratory factor analysis on the Perceived Administrative Support Scale (PASS), which received 207 total responses. After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, the sample was N=133.
Statistical analysis of those variables yielded significant findings for 21 items related to their four factors (Culture, Climate, Public Support, Adequate Preparation, Relational Trust, and Mentorship). It was also determined that the PASS held a strong internal consistency amongst factors ranging from 0.78-0.85 and a strong scale consistency of 0.92. The study's second phase was the moderation analysis, which included the previously piloted and revised Perceived Administrative Support Scale, Teacher Burnout Scale (Seidman & Zager, 1987), and Teacher Stress Inventory (Fimian, 1988), which yielded 148 total responses. After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, the sample was N=120. To answer our first research question: What percentage of teachers experience high levels of burnout? Participants who reported burnout levels above 3.58 were considered high levels of burnout, determined through interquartile ranks and demographic information. It was found that many teachers within our sample experienced burnout. To answer our second research question: What is the relationship between stress and burnout in teachers K-12? A regression analysis with perceived administrative support and stress as the predictors, with levels of teacher burnout as the dependent variable. Overall, the results showed that the utility of the predictive model was significant. However, further examination of the predictors yielded non-significant results for perceived administrative support related to teacher burnout.
Moreover, this indicates that perceived administrative support does not significantly affect teacher burnout. However, teacher stress did yield significant findings, indicating that teacher stress plays a significant role in teacher burnout. The final question this dissertation sought to answer was: Does administrative support moderate the relationship between stress and burnout? A moderation analysis was run and determined that perceived administrative support did not successfully moderate teacher burnout levels.
Repository Citation
Kelly, Madison L., "The Impact of Perceived Administrative Support on Teacher Burnout" (2024). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 560.
https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/560
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