Work environment predictors of beginning teacher burnout

Abstract

This study investigated elements of school environments that explain variance in burnout scores in a sample of university graduates from Brisbane, Australia, two years after they commenced work as teachers. Using a longitudinal survey methodology, 79 beginning teachers completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) on four occasions over a two‐year period, first, six weeks after they commenced work as teachers and finally, in the concluding term of their second year of teaching. Beginning teachers also completed the Work Environment Scale each time they were surveyed. The revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire was administered when the graduands were first surveyed. In a series of hierarchical regression analyses, reports of how innovative the work environment was perceived to be added significantly to the explanation of variance in all three MBI subscales after first controlling for initial levels of burnout and the personality trait Neuroticism.