Effective strategies for coping with burnout. A study on Romanian teachers

Teacher burnout is a relevant concern for the educational environment. Understanding the mechanisms underlying this concept is essential to identify the adequate ways to manage it. The present study investigates the relationship between both relational (student mistreatment, supervisor undermining and parent pressure) and job demands (work overload and mental load), teacher burnout (i.e., exhaustion and cynicism) and coping strategies. Data were collected via paper-pencil questionnaires from 194 teachers employed in several schools from the Western part of Romania. Results showed significant positive correlations between specific work-related demands and teacher burnout. More specifically, only one relational dimension (student mistreatment) and one job demand (work overload) were positively associated with burnout. Importantly, we found that only proactive coping is negatively correlated with burnout, whereas emotional coping had no significant association. As expected, proactive coping mediates the relationship between student mistreatment and burnout, but this relationship does not hold true for the emotional coping strategy.