Vocation and burnout in Mexican teachers

Abstract

The increasing rate of demands and urgent adaptations in the health, social and professional fields demand from individuals a response that, for some, may exceed their limits; the teaching profession is not the exception, since it is an activity of constant challenges and epistemological and cultural ruptures. The phenomenon of burnout or attrition at work is increasingly evident and has been studied in association with certain personal and contextual characteristics, however, there are not enough studies that link it with the vocation to teaching that can respond as a source of support to prevent it. The purpose of this work was to analyse the relationship between vocation and burnout syndrome in Mexican teachers, in addition to analysing the validity of the vocation to teaching scale. For this, a quantitative, descriptive, and cross-sectional study was carried out on 824 teachers of different educational levels. The results revealed a predictive and negative association between vocation and burnout, in addition to finding significant differences according to the different socio-occupational categories; likewise, the analysis of the vocation to teaching scale showed that it is a reliable and valid instrument to analyse their construct. It is concluded that there are critical factors that can trigger job burnout such as contractual uncertainty, the educational level at which teaching is exercised, professional training and experience in teaching; a comprehensive accompaniment to teachers is recommended that allows their professional and human development.