ADAPTED PHYSICAL ACTIVITY QUARTERLY, 1985, 2, 189-196
Burnout Symptoms Experienced
Among Special Physical Educators:
A Descriptive Longitudinal Study
Jim DePaepe
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Ron French
Texas Woman's University
Barry Lavay
Fort Hays State University
Burnout is a syndrome that has had a negative effect on the behavior of regular and
special classroom teachers. The purpose of this investigation was to determine (a)
whether special physical educators experience symptoms of burnout and (b) whether
these symptoms fluctuate over time. Based on the results of this investigation, the subjects exhibited several symptoms that are related to the burnout phenomenon. Furthermore, these symptoms characteristically are high throughout the school year. It was
concludedthat special physical educator supervisors should design appropriate strategies
to prevent or reduce these symptoms. Not only would this have a positive effect on
teaching behavior but it would in turn improve student learning.
Teacher burnout is an occupational hazard that is becoming more prevalent today
among educators (Mancini, Wuest, Vantine, & Clark, 1984). Numerous authorities have
acknowledged that burnout has reached epidemic proportions in the teaching profession,
including physical education (Horton, 1984; McGuire, 1979; Needle, Griffin, Svendsen,
& Berney, 1980). Comgan (1981) stated, "The principal problem in schools today is teacher
burnout" @. 26), and Bloch (1978) reported that 50% of 253 American inner-city teachers
had extensive medical histories related to maladaptive psychological and physiological
responses to continued stress in their jobs. In other studies the level of burnout among
teachers ranged from 15 to 46% (Belcastro, 1982; Belcastro & Hays, 1984; Fimian &
Santoro, 1983; Kyriacou & Sutcliffe, 1978; Weinberg, Edwards, & Garove, 1983).
While there are numerous definitions of burnout Perlman & Hartman, 1982), it
is generally described as a syndrome related to a circuit overload caused by unchecked
stress-induced anxiety of the physical, emotional, and/or intellectual systems of a teacher
(Hendrickson, 1979). The stress that triggers the burnout syndrome is brought about by
administrative conflicts, lack of perceived success, role conflict, role ambiguity, attempts
to maintain values and standards, inadequate salaries, amount of direct contact with students,
job insecurity, work overloads, teacher-student ratio, chronic discipline problems, and
Request reprints from Jim DePaepe, Division of HPER,Virginia Polytechnic Institute and
State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061.
DePaepe, French, and Lavay
190
lack of materials (Elledege-Cook & Leffigwell, 1982; Kyriacou & Sutcliffe, 1978;
Weiskopf, 1980). A number of burnout symptoms exist: anxiety, cynicism, excessive
absenteeism, boredom, alcohol and/or drug abuse, accident proneness, susceptibility to
illness, weight gains or losses, unexplained rashes, angry outbursts, and depression
(Belcastro & Hays, 1984; Landsman, 1978; Maslach, 1976). Moreover, Foster (1980)
described a burned out teacher as an exhausted teacher:
The fun, enthusiasm, curiosity and imagination has gone out of teaching. They are
discouraged and feel trapped. Their optimism has turned to cynicism. They blame the
chitdren, their families, lack of materials, or the school system. New problems become
a burden instead of a challenge. Burned out teachers have not just lost their energy
and sense of humor; they feel like victims and they feel helpless. @. 26)
Several factors correlate with burnout. These factors include age (Cohen & Brawer,
1982), gender (Coates & Thoresen, 1976), experience provided (Zabel & Zabel, 1982),
and types of handicapping conditions found among the students enrolled in the classes
(Barrier, 1982; Meadow, 1981; Taylor & Salend, 1983).
Because of burnout, teachers are leaving their jobs while others remain on the job
but merely go through the motions of teaching (Sparks, 1979). Compared to other teachers,
burned out teachers in physical education have been characterized as praising their students
less, accepting their students' ideas and actions less, keeping their students less physically
active, and interacting with them less frequently (Mancini et al., 1984).
One group of physical educators who may demonstrate a high degree of burnout
are those who teach handicapped students. The factors creating stress in the normal educational environment are probably exacerbated because of the demands imposed by the implementation of Public Law 94-142 (The Education for All Handicapped Children Act
of 1975) which has created additional stress related to work. For special educators, the
classroom counterpart of the special physical educators, numerous primary sources of stress
have been found to be directly related to the passage of this law: excessive assessment
and diagnostic responsibilities, excessive paperwork, inadequate planning time, and lack
of support from other school personnel (Bensky, Shaw, Gouse, Bates, Dixon, & Beane,
1980; Olson & Matuskey, 1982; Schloss, Sedlak, Wiggins, & Ramsey, 1983).
In addition to the factors experienced by special educators, special physical educators must contend with inadequate allocation of space within the school. According to
Elledege-Cook and Leff~ngwell(1982), special physical educators have been known to
teach in hallways, in rooms left vacant during other teachers' conference periods, and
in rooms far removed from the main school area.
This investigation was conducted to determine if the concept of burnout is relevant
in special physical educators, and whether the level of burnout fluctuates over time. The
results of the study could be used to determine the need for remedial techniques to reduce
the level of burnout if it does exist (Bradfield & Fones, 1984; Fimian, 1980; Taylor &
Salend, 1983).
Methods
Subjects
The subjects were 10 males and 17 females between 20 and 60 years of age who were
special physical educators in a large city school district in the southwestern United States.
BURNOUT SYMPTOMS
191
A total of 3 1 special physical educators were employed in this school district, but three
chose not to take part in the study and one dropped out during the study. Of the 27 who
did participate, 17 were itinerant teachers and 10 taught in self-contained settings; they
all taught in integrated schools. An average of 21 to 25 special education classes were
taught per week to a total of 50 to 69 students who had a variety of handicapping conditions: mental retardation (18), behavioral disorders (20), learning disabilities (20), visual
impairments (15), deafness (13), severe handicaps (6), orthopedic handicaps (12), other
health impairments (IS), multiple handicaps (16), and blindness (4). Seven of the teachers
had at least one other school-related responsibility besides teaching, such as coaching,
and nine teachers spent from 11 to 20 hours a meek at another job. In addition, 20 of
them exercised regularly. The most common forms of exercise were jogging, calisthenicslweightlifting, swimming, and walking.
Instrumentation and Data Collection
Two instnunents were utilized in collecting data on burnout. The first was the Maslach
Burnout Inventory (Maslach & Jackson, 1981). The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI)
consists of three subscales: emotional exhaustion, personal accomplishment, and depersonalization. The inventory contains 22 items that are answered on two dimensions: frequency and intensity, using a Likert scale. The nine items in the emotional exhaustion
subscale are used to describe feelings of emotional overextension and stress induced through
work exhaustion. The five items in the depersonalization subscale are used to describe
impersonal responses regarding the subjects' students. The eight items on the personal
accomplishment subscale are used to describe feelings of competence and successful
achievements in the subjects' work. This subscale contrasts with the other two subscales
because a lower score corresponds to a higher degree of burnout. Teachers who experience
strong feelings of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization and who lack a sense of
personal accomplishment would be viewed as experiencing burnout.
The second instrument was developed by Rizzo, House, and Lutzman (1970) and
modified by Schwab and Iwanicki (1982) to measure role conflict and ambiguity. Role
conflict was defined in terms of the dimension of congruency-incongruencyor compatibility
as judged by a set of standards or conditions that impinge on teaching performance. Role
ambiguity was defined as the predictability of the outcome or responseto a teacher's behavior
about duties, authority, allocation of time, relationship with others, and the clarity or existence of guides, directions, policies, and the ability to predict sanctions as outcomes of
behavior. The questions are answered on a scale from 1 to 7. A score of 1 would indicate
that the subject perceived the question as being unrelated to his or her job, whereas a score
of 7 would indicate that the subject perceived the question as being extremely representative.
Both the MBI and the role conflict/ambiguity questionnaire were administered to
each subject three predetermined times during the s~hoolyear: (a) at the beginning of
the school year, (b) immediately before Christmas vacation, and (c) just before the end
of the school year.
Results and Discussion
Based on the results of the data analyzed through the use of Pearson Product Moment
Correlations, one-way repeated measures analyses of variance, and Duncan's Multiple
Comparison Tests, numerous factors influenced the level of burnout exhibited by special
192
DePaepe, French, and Lavay
physical educators. The results obtained for each of these factors wilt be presented and
discussed separately.
Age and Years of Teaching Experience
Several investigators have reported that age was a significant factor in burnout (Cohen
& Brawer, 1982; Gann, 1979). The results are conflicting. Edelwich and Brodslq (1980)
and Melton (1980) reported that younger workers are more vulnerable to burnout, whereas
Bardo (1979) and Bourne (1982) suggested that older teachers tend to bum out more than
younger teachers. Others have indicated that age and years of experience are the contributing
factors (Burke & Weir, 1982; Pohl, 1983), while Cherniss (1980) contended that years
of experience is the only contributing factor.
In this investigation, special physical educators with greater years of experience
showed significantly less ambiguity concerning their job responsibilities,F(3,25) = 3.63,
p < .05. Role ambiguity is related to the predictability of the outcome to a teacher behavior
about duties, authority, allocation of time, and relationship with others.
Gender
Female special educators in this investigation showed significantly higher incidences of
emotional exhaustion, F(1, 25) = 4.40, p < .05, higher degrees of personal accomplishment, F(1, 25) = 4.28, p < .05, and greater intensities, F(1, 25) = 11.39, p < .05, than
the male special physical educators.
Other investigators (Haw, 1982; Wakat & Odom, 1982; Wiley & Eskilson, 1982)
have indicated that gender was a significant factor in burnout score differences, particularly
among single females (Weinberg et al., 1983). However, females in these studies had lower
total burnout scores than the female subjects in our investigation.
Physical Activity
Exercise is considered a crucial component in the remediation of burnout (Horton, 1984).
Pohl (1983) reported that physical education administrators in community colleges had
lower burnout scores for both frequency and intensity when compared to those who did
not exercise regularly.
Special physical educators who indicated that they exercised by walking (r = .55,
p < .05), swimming (r = .41, p < .05), or cycling (r = .52,p < .05) experienced lower
levels of ambiguity. Swimmers also experienced lower levels of depersonalization (r =
.52, p < .05). Further analyses indicated that special physical educators who swam, F(1,
23) = 10.0, p < .05, walked, F(1, 25) = 5.12, p < .05, or cycled, F(l, 25) = 9.23,
p < .05, regularly demonstrated significantly less ambiguity concerning their jobs during
the academic year.
Working with Handicapped Students
While working with handicapped students generally did not seem to be a major cause of
burnout, there were some significant correlations. Teachers of the severely handicapped
experienced low levels of depersonalization intensity (r = .35, p < .05) and with less
frequency (r = .39, p < .05). Sullivan (1979) stated that teachers working with severely
handicapped students may experience an even greater degree of burnout than other pro-
BURNOUT SYMPTOMS
193
fessionals in the helping professions. There was also a significant correlation between
teachers of behaviorally disordered children and personal accomplishment (r = .39, p
< .05).
In contrastto these results, Zabel and Zabel(1982) reported that classroom teachers
of the behaviorally disordered scored highest on both emotional exhaustion and depersonalization when compared to other teachers of handicapped students. Lawrenson and
McKinnon (1982) suggested the problem may be due to conflicts with administrators or
personal needs of the teachers who provide service to the behaviorally disordered child
that create job stress and dissatisfaction. It seems in the present investigation that this is
not the case.
Special physical educators who worked with visually impaired (r = .44, p < .05)
and multihandicapped (r = .47, p < .05) children experienced a low level of ambiguity
related to frequency. There was also a significant correlation between teachers of other
health-impaired students (r = .41, p < .05) and high personal accomplishment related
to frequency.
Other investigators have reported significant differences between teachers working
with specific populations of handicapped students and specific aspects of burnout that were
not demonstrated in the present investigation. Pullis (1983) reported that resource teachers
perceived themselves as experiencing symptoms of anxiety more often than regular teachers
or other types of special education teachers, although Fimian (1980) reported that teachers
working with mentally retarded children did consider poor administrative attitudes as the
strongest source of stress and turned to alcohol to relieve stress more often than did the
regular classroom teachers.
Meadow (1981) reported that teachers of hearing-impaired students scored significantly higher on the emotional exhaustion subscale when given the MBI. It was also reported
that older teachers and those with the most experience expressed the most exhaustion.
In agreement, Zabel and Zabel(1982) reported that teachers of hearing-impaired children
demonstrated high levels of emotional exhaustion.
Large Class Loads
Special physical educators who perceived they had larger numbers of students scored
significantly higher in emotional exhaustion, F(2,24) = 3.29, p < .05, and overall bumout, F(2, 24) = 3.99, p < .05. The additional class load increases the number of placement meetings, diagnostic testing, consulting, and due process meetings. This of course
decreases the amount of time that special physical educators have to complete their work
during the school day. The perception of the lack of time is directly proportional to the
infringement of school-related work on a teacher's time (Weiskopf, 1980).
Time of Year
The time of year in which the tests were administered did not significantly influence the
burnout scores. Based on the one-way ANOVA using repeated measures and the results
of Duncan's Multiple Range Test, the level of burnout is a relatively stable characteristic
over one academic year, F(2, 26) = 4.22, p < .0001. The mean burnout score for the
beginning of the year was 65.88, for the administration immediately before Christmas break,
64.88, and just prior to summer vacation, 62.70. This finding supports Freudenberger's
(1977) suggestion that burnout has a gradual onset and the process has a cumulative ef-
DePaepe, French, and Lavay
194
fect. Burnout is not usually a reaction to one specific stressful event, but instead emerges
gradually over a period of time in reaction to several stressful events.
The level of burnout was not influenced by vacations or time of year, as suggested
by numerous authorities (Hendrickson, 1979; Pohl, 1983; Readers Report, 1979; Sullivan,
1979). The tests were administered after summer vacation, before Christmas vacation,
and prior to summer vacation. There were no statistical differences between these scores indicating an agreement with the previously mentioned research.
Conclusion
Based on the results of the present investigation, the general characteristics of special
physical educators are provided in relation to burnout. Some general health concerns related
to occupational stress have been identified in regular and general educators, but this is
only the first step. Programs are needed for diagnosing, preventing, and treating burnout
in special physical educators. Weiskopf (1980) has made several general suggestions to
prevent or decrease the symptoms of burnout:
Know in advance the type of emotions of the particular teaching assignment.
Set realistic goals and objectives for self-paced students.
Delegate paperwork and nonteaching responsibilitiesto aides or parent volunteers.
Avoid isolation from other staff.
Break up the amount of continuous, direct contacts with students by team teaching,
use of obstacle courses, and circuit training.
6. Attend conferences, insewice sessions, workshops, or graduate classes.
7. Relieve stress by exercising.
8. Be creative and try new responses to reduce boredom. Become involved and
active in nonjob-related hobbies.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Specific techniques have also been developed to combat burnout: (a) development
of support systems and groups (Crase, 1980; Maslach, 1976; Meadow, 1981; Taylor &
Salend, 1983); (b) environmental management (Firnian, 1980); (c) relaxation training
(Oflynn-Comiskey, 1980; Schloss, Sedlack, Wiggins, & Ramsey, 1983); (d) counseling
(Watkins, 1983); (e) biofeedback (Walton, 1981); and (f) desensitization (Dollar, 1972).
Truch (1980) has recommended a four-part program that involves deep relaxation training;aerobic exercise, systematic attitude modification, and diet.
The part of Truch's program and the suggestions mentioned by Weiskopf (1980)
that are of specific interest to physical education is the use of exercise as a treatment modality. This is clearly supportive of current investigative findings. As in this present investigation
with special physical educators and Pohl's investigation (1983) with physical education
administrators, physical educators who exercised regularly had lower burnout scores.
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