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Cited by 77Occupational Health and BurnoutStress and Burnout ResearchJob Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior

Early Childhood Special Education Teachers’ Job Burnout and Psychological Stress

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Jeon, Hyun-Joo, Diamond, Lindsay, McCartney, Christina, Kwon, Kyong-Ah·2022·Early Education and Development
DOI 10.1080/10409289.2021.1965395PMC PMC9640182
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Abstract

Research findings: All teachers have demanding jobs and work with limited resources. However, working with young children with disabilities may place additional demands on early childhood special education (ECSE) teachers which may impact their well-being. Using the Job Demands and Resources model, the present study aimed to predict ECSE teachers' job burnout and psychological stress by using their job demands, job resources, and professional internal resources. An online survey was collected from 121 ECSE teachers from a large urban school district in a Western state of the United States. The results showed that job demands (work-related stressors) were positively associated with teachers' job burnout and psychological stress. Job resources (sense of school community) were negatively associated with their job burnout and psychological stress. Teachers' job commitment was negatively associated with job burnout. Though their other internal resources (beliefs about developmentally appropriate practices and teaching-efficacy) were not related to their job burnout and psychological stress, their beliefs about social emotional learning were positively related to job burnout. Practice or Policy: These findings offer implications for research and practice regarding the importance of improving ECSE teachers' well-being and working conditions.

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  • The nature of the job of special needs education teachers could be more demanding and elicit physical and psychological symptoms of stress, manifesting as general health problems, bio-psychological burnout symptoms, and an impact on well-being.

    “Previous studies revealed that the nature of the job of special needs education teachers could be more demanding and elicit physical and psychological symptoms of stress. These can manifest in various ways, such as general health problems (Uthami & Sunardi, 2024), bio-psychological burnout symptoms (Sujarwanto et al., 2024), and an impact on well-being (Jeon et al., 2021).”

    From Teacher Self-Efficacy and Stress in Special Education: Evidence from Rural Schools in CAR, Philippines (2025) · cites this paper as Jeon et al., 2021

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Jeon, H.-J., Diamond, L., McCartney, C., & Kwon, K.-A.
Affiliations
  • University of Nevada, Reno (US)
  • University of Oklahoma (US)
Corresponding author
Jeon, Hyun-Joo
ORCID
Venue
Early Education and Development
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Published
2021-08-24
Volume
33
Issue
8
Pages
1364-1382
ISSN
  • 1040-9289 (ISSN-L)
  • 1556-6935
DOI
10.1080/10409289.2021.1965395
PMC
PMC9640182
OpenAlex
W3195405764
Cited by
77
References
12
Citations by year
2026: 30 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 2
FWCI
10.70
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Early Education and Development (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (GM103440)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Occupational Health and Burnout
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Stress and Burnout Research
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior
Keywords
early childhood special education teachers, burnout, psychological stress, teacher well-being, job demands, job resources, work commitment, teacher self-efficacy, young children with disabilities

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