Self-efficacy predicts teacher burnout two years later

Job burnout harms teacher wellbeing and has vast negative consequences, for example, on student performance, teaching staff morale, and teacher retention. Increasing teacher self-efficacy beliefs could mitigate burnout risk. However, the available literature lacks conclusive evidence regarding the effect size of teacher self-efficacy on burnout. The aim of this study was to report the latent lagged correlation between the Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale (TSES) and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). Additionally, potential effects of workload, pedagogical training, and teacher age on self-efficacy and job burnout as well as the effect of job burnout on absenteeism were tested. The responses of the representative sample of 412 lower secondary school teachers in Poland who taught Polish or mathematics were analysed. The structural model with measurement parts was employed. For TSES, the oblique three-factor model was used and for MBI-ES, the bi-factor model. Rise in self-efficacy by one standard deviation translates in reduction by almost half of the standard deviation in the burnout symptoms, two years later. Spending more time on out-of-class preparation increases teachers’ sense of self-efficacy, in turn protecting teachers from burnout. Also, solid pedagogical training proved having direct effect on reducing burnout symptoms.