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Cited by 21Occupational Health and BurnoutStress and Burnout ResearchHealthcare professionals’ stress and burnout

Burnout among elementary and high school teachers in three Canadian provinces: prevalence and predictors

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Agyapong, Belinda, da Luz Dias, Raquel, Wei, Yifeng, Agyapong, Vincent Israel Opoku·2024·Frontiers in Public Health
DOI 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1396461PMC PMC11082415
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Abstract

Background: Burnout is a longstanding issue among educators and has been associated with psychological and physical health problems such as depression, and insomnia. Objective: To assess the prevalence and predictors of the three dimensions of burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and lack of professional accomplishment) among elementary and high school teachers. Methods: This is a quantitative cross-sectional study with data collected via an online survey. The Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educator Survey (MBI-ES), the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS) and the Perceived Stress Scale were used, respectively, to assess burnout, resilience and stress among teachers. Data was collected between September 1st, 2022 and August 30th, 2023. SPSS (version 28, IBM Corp) was used for the data analysis. Results: Overall, 1912 educators received a link to the online survey via a text message, and 780 completed the burnout survey questions, resulting in a response rate of 41%. The prevalence of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and lack of professional accomplishment were 76.9, 23.2, and 30.8%, respectively. Participants with high-stress symptoms were 6.88 times more likely to experience emotional exhaustion (OR = 6.88; 95% CI: 3.31–14.29), 2.55 times (OR = 2.55; 95% CI: 1.65–3.93) more likely to experience depersonalization and 2.34 times (OR = 2.34; 95% CI: 1.64–3.35) more likely to experience lack of professional fulfilment. Additionally, respondents with low resilience were 3.26 times more likely to experience emotional exhaustion symptoms (OR = 3.26; 95% CI: 2.00–5.31), than those with high resilience. Males were about 2.4 times more likely to present with depersonalization compared to female teachers, whilst those who indicated their marital status as partnered or cohabiting and those who selected “other” were 3.5 and 7.3 times, respectively, more likely to present with depersonalization compared with those who were single. Finally, Physical Education were 3.8 times more likely to present with depersonalization compared with English teachers. Conclusion: The current study highlights the predictive effects of low resilience and high stress on the three dimensions of burnout among teachers in Canada. Interventions aimed at addressing systemic stress and fostering resilience are needed to reduce burnout among teachers.

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  • Rising rates of teacher burnout, lowered academic achievement, increased violence and disruption in schools, and decreased parent satisfaction will eventually overwhelm Alberta's ability to educate all children.

    “The rising rates of teacher burnout, lowered levels of academic achievement, increased incidences of violence and disruption within schools, and decreased parent satisfaction with the school system will eventually overwhelm our ability to educate all children in Alberta (Agyapong et al., 2024; Kendrick et al., 2025).”

    From Education Leadership in K-12 Systems from a Métis Worldview: Infusing Education Leadership with an Understanding of Wâhkôhtowin (2025) · cites this paper as Agyapong et al., 2024

    The Discussion reports high teacher emotional exhaustion in Alberta (83.1%), supporting the concern about burnout. It does not establish that burnout rates are rising, nor does it address declining academic achievement, school violence, parent satisfaction, or the prediction that Alberta’s ability to educate all children will be overwhelmed. (LLM, conf=0.88)

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  • The Alberta education system has been struggling for years to provide quality education within increasingly complex learning environments.

    “The education system in Alberta has been struggling for years to provide quality education within increasingly complex learning environments.”

    From Education Leadership in K-12 Systems from a Métis Worldview: Infusing Education Leadership with an Understanding of Wâhkôhtowin (2025) · cites this paper as Agyapong et al., 2024

    The Discussion reports high emotional exhaustion among Alberta teachers, and Study settings describes Alberta’s schools, but neither assesses the quality of education or a worsening of learning environments over years. Searches for the claimed struggle and for increasingly complex learning environments found no passage addressing those points. (LLM, conf=0.72)

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Authors
Agyapong, B., da Luz Dias, R., Wei, Y., & Agyapong, V. I. O.
Affiliations
  • University of Alberta (CA)
  • Dalhousie University (CA)
Corresponding author
Agyapong, Belinda
ORCID
Venue
Frontiers in Public Health
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Published
2024-04-26
Volume
12
Pages
1396461-1396461
ISSN
2296-2565 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3389/fpubh.2024.1396461
PMC
PMC11082415
OpenAlex
W4395672963
Cited by
21
References
5
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 1
FWCI
17.72
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Frontiers in Public Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Occupational Health and Burnout
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Stress and Burnout Research
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout
Keywords
teacher burnout, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, resilience, perceived stress, primary school teachers, secondary school teachers, burnout prevalence, predictors of burnout, gender differences, marital status, physical education teachers, Canadian provinces, occupational stress in education, Brief Resilience Scale, Perceived Stress Scale
MeSH terms
School Teachers, Adult, Burnout, Professional, Canada, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Surveys and Questionnaires, Stress, Psychological, Prevalence, Resilience, Psychological

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