Burnout, psychological distress and job satisfaction among secondary school teachers in Enugu, south east Nigeria

Abstract

Teachers in all levels of education are very crucial in the educational development of any society and their satisfaction will basically affect the quality of services they render to the educational sector. However, the teaching profession is associated with a lot of stress arising from work overload and poor remuneration. This can lead to high prevalence of burnout, psychological distress and low level of job satisfaction among teachers. This study assessed the prevalence of burnout, psychological distress and job satisfaction among teachers in secondary schools in Enugu, south east Nigeria. The Maslach burnout inventory, the General health questionnaire (GHQ-12) and the Generic job satisfaction scale were used to assess 432 teachers working in secondary schools in Enugu south east Nigeria for prevalence of burnout, psychological distress and level of job satisfaction. The prevalence of burnout was 40% for emotional exhaustion, 39.4% for depersonalization and 36.8% for reduced personal accomplishment. 32.9% had psychological distress while 39.6% had low level of job satisfaction. There was high prevalence of burnout, psychological distress and low level of job satisfaction among the teachers.