Teacher stress, burnout, and social support in Chinese secondary education

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study is to examine the effect of teacher stress on burnout and the use of social support as a coping strategy in Chinese secondary education. Three major findings are generated: (a) teacher stress causes burnout, explaining 25 percent of the variance in burnout; (b) work overload is the most common stressor, followed by role conflict and role ambiguity, respectively. Work overload is the only predictor of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, but none of the stressors is an effective predictor of reduced accomplishment; (c) family and friend support is the most common source of social support, followed by colleague support and supervisor support, respectively, but supervisor support is the most effective in alleviating stress, emotional exhaustion, and reduced accomplishment, and family and friend support is the most effective in mitigating depersonalization.