Burnout and life satisfaction: does gratitude intervention make a difference among Chinese school teachers in Hong Kong?

Abstract

This study investigated the effectiveness of a gratitude intervention programme in promoting life satisfaction and reducing burnout symptoms. Sixty-three Hong Kong Chinese school teachers aged 22–54 participated in an eight-week count-your-blessings study that used a pre-test/post-test design. Increases in life satisfaction and the sense of personal accomplishment and decreases in emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation were observed in the post-intervention assessment. Significant changes were observed on life satisfaction and emotional exhaustion as a result of intervention interacting with the meaningful-life orientation to happiness. These changes favoured teachers who put higher value on the meaningful-life orientation, suggesting that the promotion of a meaningful-life orientation could be an important element in the repertoire of gratitude intervention efforts. Implications of the findings on developing gratitude intervention programmes that focus on human positives and the promotion of gratitude and the meaningful-life orientation in combating teacher burnout are discussed.

Keywords:

• burnout
• Chinese teachers
• gratitude
• gratitude intervention
• Hong Kong
• life satisfaction
• orientation to happiness