Influence of socio-demographic profile of teachers on their levels of emotional intelligence and burnout

Abstract

The educational guidelines, derived from the convergence of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), require new competences of teachers and researchers at the university. These demands give rise to challenges or personal difficulties for teachers, since the work environment can overwhelm them and may cause the appearance of the well-known «burnout» syndrome. Much of that unease is linked to unfulfilled job expectations and an imbalance between the emotional competences and emotional demands required as teachers. Emotional intelligence acts as a preventative factor in this professional unease, explaining why there are teachers who are tougher than others when it comes to the stressful factors of the profession. This research evaluates the emotional condition and burnout among teachers and researchers at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), using as instruments the TMSS-24 and the MBI-GS, and at the same time establishing a connection between the levels of these constructs with the influence of the demographic profile of teachers and researchers. The results of the SEM indicate that the perceived emotionalintelligence does cause a significant negative effect on emotional exhaustion and a significant positive effect on professional efficacy. Moreover, there is a significant positive effect between emotional exhaustion and cynicism. Based on the information analyzed, it gives way to a reflection on the emotional and professional situation of the teachers, emphasizing mainly the differences according to gender, since women show not only higher levels of understanding and emotional regulation but also greater levels of exhaustion and cynicism, as well as differences in the area of knowledge, since the PDI of Art and Humanities presents not only high levels of emotional perception but also of exhaustion and cynicism. It is worth highlighting the results related to work experience since it is proven that the higher the number of years of experience, the higher the level of cynicism.