The professional burnout of teachers working with gifted students

¹ Irkutsk state University, Pedagogical Institute Department of Psychodiagnostics and Practical Psychology, Irkutsk, Russia
² Irkutsk State Medical University, Department of Polyclinic Therapy and General Medical Practice, Irkutsk, Russia
³ Moscow city university, Institute of Pedagogy and Psychology of Education, Department of Psychology, Moscow, Russia
⁴ Irkutsk State Medical University, Department of Therapeutic Dentistry, Irkutsk, Russia

^* Corresponding author: a.golmenko@mail.ru

Abstract

Since 2014, scholars have been studying the professional burnout of medical workers following the order of health care. In 2017, the authors of the article began to analyze the causes of burnout in teachers, including those who work with gifted children. The study of burnout is a socially significant task as the high-level burnout of doctors and teachers leads to a decrease in the quality of work, staff turnover, health problems and economic losses. The study aims at seeking universal approaches to the diagnostics, prevention and correction of burnout. The authors consider professional burnout as a combination of interdependent components: psychological, somatic and psychosomatic. In this case, it was necessary to study professional burnout and morbidity with temporal disability with due regard to age, sex, length of service and place of work, as well as to calculate the economic damage from the above-mentioned morbidity. They should also determine the significance of work experience and professional qualities in the formation of burnout and morbidity. To study professional burnout, the authors used proven, reliable and valid methods: diagnostic tests (questionnaire to reveal the emotional burnout degree by V.V. Boyko); questionnaire to measure professional burnout by K. Maslach and S. Jackson (abridged by N. E. Vodopianova). Morbidity with temporal disability and economic damage were considered with the help of statistical analysis, modeling and the PPP Statistica software. To determine professionally significant personality traits, the authors used the Wiesbaden questionnaire, cluster analysis using the Chebyshev similarity measure and the Kendall rank correlation coefficient to confirm the results of cluster analysis. The authors have compared the burnout of teachers working with gifted children with that experienced by rural teachers and doctors. They have identified age groups that are most susceptible to burnout and factors influencing the burnout of teachers.