Burnout, resilience, and subjective well-being among Portuguese lecturers' during the COVID-19 pandemic

Luísa Castro; Carla Serrão; Ana Rita Rodrigues; Sílvia Marina; José Paulo Marques Dos Santos; Teresa Sofia Amorim-Lopes; Carla Miguel; Andreia Teixeira; Ivone Duarte

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1271004

Burnout, resilience, and subjective well-being among Portuguese lecturers' during the COVID-19 pandemic

Front Psychol. 2023 Nov 30:14:1271004. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1271004. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Luísa Castro^#^{1

2}, Carla Serrão^#^{3

4}, Ana Rita Rodrigues^{5

6}, Sílvia Marina^{1

2}, José Paulo Marques Dos Santos^{5

7}, Teresa Sofia Amorim-Lopes⁷, Carla Miguel⁸, Andreia Teixeira^{1

2

9}, Ivone Duarte^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Community Medicine, Information and Decision in Health; Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
² CINTESIS@RISE, MEDCIDS, Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
³ Escola Superior de Educação do Instituto Politécnico do Porto, Porto, Portugal.
⁴ Centre for Research and Innovation in Education (inED), Porto, Portugal.
⁵ University of Maia, Maia, Portugal.
⁶ Center for Psychology, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
⁷ Department of Biomedicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
⁸ Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
⁹ ADiT-LAB, InstitutoPolitécnico de Viana do Castelo, Rua Escola Industrial e Comercial Nun'Álvares, Viana do Castelo, Portugal.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Lecturers face a large wide of occupational stressors. If the prolonged stress and the symptomatology associated with the working conditions to which lecturers were exposed were already a concern before the pandemic, the pandemic may have exacerbated this psychosocial vulnerability. Burnout is a psychological syndrome that develops in response to chronic work stress. This study aims to describe burnout amongst lecturers working in Portugal and to analyse potential determinants of burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed using an online questionnaire distributed via social networks. The survey collected sociodemographic and sleep patterns data in addition to applying the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (personal, work- and student-related burnout), the Resilience Scale, the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales, and the Satisfaction with Life Scale.

Results: The sample included 331 lecturers from 35 different colleges and faculties. Three significant models explained personal (R2 = 54%), work- (R2 = 47%) and student- (R2 = 19%) related burnout. Lower levels of resilience and higher levels of depression and stress were significantly associated with personal and work-related burnout. Changes in sleep patterns were additionally associated with both personal and work-related burnout.

Conclusion: Higher education institutions must recognize the impact of the work environment and organizational culture on faculty mental health and take proactive measures to improve this environment. These institutions can implement support strategies such as educational technology training, professional development programmes, emotional support resources, and workload flexibility. Implementing measures to enhance lecturers' resilience and overall life satisfaction could potentially help mitigate burnout and improve the well-being of educators, ultimately contributing to the overall quality of education.

Keywords: COVID-19; burnout; lecturers; resilience; subjective well-being.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by National Funds through FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., within CINTESIS, R&D Unit (reference UIDB/4255/2020); and FCT, under Grant (UIDP/05198/2020; Centre for Research and Innovation in Education, inED). AR receieved funding from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT SFRH/BD/145253), TA-L receieved funding from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (SFRH/BD/135668/2018).