Empathy and professional burnout of Russian and Belarusian teachers

Abstract

The paper presents the results of a cross-cultural study of empathy and professional burnout of Belarusian and Russian teachers. Interpersonal Reactivity Index by M. Davis (IRI) and Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) were used. The absence of statistically significant differences in the level of empathy and burnout of teachers in a cross-cultural context was shown. Socio-economic features of the functioning of the two countries' educational systems can explain non-significant trends of the cross-cultural differences in the severity of burnout symptoms. Both in the Russian and Belarusian sample the relationship between emotional exhaustion as a symptom of burnout and personal distress as a “negative” empathic phenomenon was found. Significant correlations between the severity of burnout and “positive” empathic phenomena (perspective taking, fantasy, empathic concern) have not been found.