Stronger is not always better - The ambivalent effect of social identity and relative deprivation on burnout among Hungarian teachers

Abstract

Teacher burnout is a worldwide problem, and discontent of the educators often leads to social action in forms of demonstrations and strikes. Studies often link teacher burnout to interpersonal and workplace factors. Social and societal factors, however, are rarely considered in the development of the symptoms. Our study aimed to reveal how the strength of teacher identity and different types of relative deprivation are associated with teacher burnout. A representative sample of 1797 Hungarian teachers participated in our survey study which aimed to measure exhaustion and disengagement as symptoms of burnout beside strength of teacher identity, working hours, egoistic and fraternalistic relative deprivation. The results of the Structural Equation Analysis showed that teacher identity is negatively linked to burnout symptoms. On the other hand, both types of relative deprivation and working hours are positively linked to burnout. The analysis of mediating paths also confirmed the Janus-faced effect of teacher identity: contrarily to its direct negative link to burnout, a positive mediating effect of teacher identity was revealed through fraternalistic relative deprivation. The findings indicate that the general judgement of teachers within society may contribute to burnout. Therefore, burnout research should focus on social comparison processes beside exploring intrapersonal and workplace factors.