Emotional competence relating to perceived stress and burnout in Spanish teachers: a mediator model

Lourdes Rey; Natalio Extremera; Mario Pena

doi:10.7717/peerj.2087

Emotional competence relating to perceived stress and burnout in Spanish teachers: a mediator model

PeerJ. 2016 May 31:4:e2087. doi: 10.7717/peerj.2087. eCollection 2016.

Authors

Lourdes Rey¹, Natalio Extremera², Mario Pena³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Personality Assessment and Psychological Treatment, Faculty of Psychology, University of Málaga , Málaga , Spain.
² Department of Social Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Málaga , Málaga , Spain.
³ Department of Educational Research and Diagnosis in Education, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED) , Spain.

Abstract

This study examined direct associations between emotional competence, perceived stress and burnout in 489 Spanish teachers. In addition, a model in which perceived stress mediated pathways linking emotional competence to teacher burnout symptoms was also examined. Results showed that emotional competence and stress were significantly correlated with teacher burnout symptoms in the expected direction. Moreover, mediational analysis indicated that perceived stress partly mediated the relationship between emotional competence and the three dimensions of burnout even when controlling for salient background characteristics. These findings suggest an underlying process by which high emotional competence may increase the capacity to cope with symptoms of burnout, by reducing the experience of stress. Implications of these findings for future research and for working with teachers to prevent burnout are discussed.

Keywords: Burnout; Emotional competence; Perceived stress; Teachers.

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Grant PSI2012-38813). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.