Date Approved

5-6-1997

Embargo Period

8-26-2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A. in School Psychology

Department

Educational Services and Leadership

College

College of Education

Advisor

Klanderman, John

Subject(s)

Special education teachers--Job stress; Teachers--Job stress

Disciplines

Educational Psychology

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if teachers who work with mentally and physically handicapped children in special education schools have a higher incidence of burnout than teachers who work in regular education schools.

Twenty regular educators from a public school, k-12, and twenty special educators from two private special education schools, k-12, participated in the study. The special educators taught children with moderate levels of mental retardation and multiple handicaps, Each participant completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory, Educator's Survey.

Three two-tailed t-tests were computed to compare the means of the three subscales of the burnout survey: Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and Personal Accomplishment. The data did not indicate any significant differences of higher levels of burnout among special educators as opposed to regular educators on all three subscales. The depersonalization subscale did show significantly higher scores of burnout among regular educators, which was in direct contrast to the hypothesis.

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