RESEARCH ARTICLE

Chronic Work Stress and Depressive Symptoms:

Assessing the Mediating Role of Teacher Burnout
Mary A. Steinhardt1*, Shanna E. Smith Jaggars2, Kathryn E. Faulk1 & Christian T. Gloria1
1

Kinesiology and Health Education, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

Abstract
A conceptual model of the relationship between stress, the mediating role of burnout, and depressive symptoms
was examined. Results indicated that teachers (n = 267) experiencing greater stress were more burned out. The
subscale emotional exhaustion was moderately related to depressive symptoms, whereas depersonalization and
reduced personal accomplishment had small positive relationships. After controlling for burnout and
demographics, the relationship between stress and depressive symptoms was small but signicant. Emotional
exhaustion mediated the association between stress and depressive symptoms. The total effect of stress on
depressive symptoms, taking together the direct and indirect effects via burnout, accounted for 43% of the total
variance. Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Received 9 May 2010; Accepted 16 January 2011; Revised 11 January 2011
Keywords
stressors; chronic work stress; teacher burnout; depressive symptoms
*Correspondence
Mary A. Steinhardt, Department of Kinesiology and Health Education, Bellmont Hall 222, MC: D3700, The University of Texas at Austin,
Austin, TX 78710, USA.

Email: msteinhardt@austin.utexas.edu
Published online 11 February 2011 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/smi.1394

Introduction
Public school teachers experience a great deal of stress
throughout their careers with up to onethird indicating
that teaching is a very or extremely stressful profession
(Borg & Riding, 1991; Kyriacou, 2001). Stress, burnout
and teacher attrition have reached alarming levels,
threatening quality education and subsequent student
achievement. Teacher attrition due to work stress is
increasing, with 4050% of new teachers leaving the
profession after only 3 years (Ingersoll & Smith, 2003).
Stressors that teachers regularly encounter include role
overload, disruptive students, nonsupportive parents,
lack of support from the administration, poor relationships with colleagues, being evaluated and highstakes
student testing (Kyriacou, 2001; Manthei, Gilmore,
Tuck, & Adair, 1996; Montgomery & Rupp, 2005).
These stressors create and exacerbate stress, burnout and
high turnover rates in the teaching profession.
Teacher burnout is recognized as a prolonged
exposure to emotional and interpersonal stressors on
the job, often accompanied by insufcient recovery,
resulting in previously committed teachers disengaging
from their work. Burnout represents a response to an
intolerable work situation (Cherniss, 1980; Evers, Tomic,
420

& Brouwers, 2004; Hakanen, Bakker, & Schaufeli, 2006;

Maslach & Leiter, 2008) and is dened as a psychological
syndrome of three interrelated components: emotional
exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal
accomplishment (Maslach, 1993; Maslach, Jackson,
& Leiter, 1996; Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001).
Emotional exhaustion is the stress component and
central quality of burnout. It occurs when a teacher is
extremely fatigued and feels overextended by work and
drained of emotional and physical resources (Schwarzer
& Hallum, 2008). Depersonalization represents the
interpersonal component and is described as feeling
cynical, irritable and negative towards others. Teachers
are more likely to develop an indifferent or cynical
attitude and detached response on the job when feeling
emotionally exhausted and discouraged (Maslach et al.,
2001). The selfevaluation component of reduced
personal accomplishment includes feelings of incompetence and a lack of productivity and achievement at work.
It is difcult to feel a sense of accomplishment at work
when feeling emotionally exhausted and indifferent or
cynical towards others (Maslach & Leiter, 2008).
Although this burnout syndrome can occur in any
profession, it is most common in the helping professions,
especially among teachers (Sakharov & Farber, 1983).
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M. A. Steinhardt et al.

Chronic work stress and subsequent burnout

syndrome stem from the teachers appraisal of
demands and the inability to cope effectively with
these demands (Kyriacou & Sutcliffe, 1978). The
Transactional Model of Stress and Coping (Lazarus,
1966; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) provides a framework
to understand the complex cognitive processes that
teachers undergo as they attempt to cope with
demands at work. The basic premise is that stressful
experiences are construed as transactions between the
environment and the individual. The experience of
stress results when teachers appraise the environmental
demands as threatening and feel they do not have the
coping resources available to meet those demands. If
stressful situations cannot be alleviated through active
and meaningbased coping strategies, defensive coping
strategies provide a much needed psychological escape.
For example, if empathic and caring teachers remain
committed in work situations where failure and
disappointment are frequent, the prolonged levels of
stress may result in teachers who are emotionally
exhausted and who become apathetic, cynical or rigid;
if students are ungrateful or even abusive and the
teachers active coping strategies are ineffective, the
teacherstudent relationship may become mechanical
and distant.
Both chronic stress and burnout negatively inuence
health status and are signicantly related to mental
illness, especially depression (Schaufeli & Greenglass,
2001; WHO, 1992). Psychosomatic disorders are
among the predominant reasons teachers give for
leaving the profession, with depression among the
most commonly listed (Weber, Weltle, & Lederer,
2002). When work stress reaches an unbearable level,
which nearly 20% of teachers admit experiencing
(Hammen & deMayo, 1982), exhaustion, poor performance (Ahola et al., 2005) and depression can result
(Bakker & Schaufeli, 2000). Because depression in
teachers is one of the primary causes for increased
teacher absenteeism and high attrition rates, it
threatens the quality of our educational system
(Hammen & deMayo, 1982; Hastings & Bham, 2003).
Studies have found work stress to be an independent
predictor of all three components of teacher burnout
(Chan, 2003; Friesen & Sarros, 1989) and of depressive
symptoms (Melchior et al., 2007). Although teachers
tend to display high levels of emotional exhaustion, the
component of burnout most strongly related to
depression (Maslach et al., 2001; Schaufeli & Enzmann,
1998), Maslach et al. suggest that the phenomenon of
burnout must include all three components. They
propose that an exclusive focus on the stress
component of emotional exhaustion fails to capture
the relationships that teachers have with their work.
When teachers are overloaded, they distance themselves emotionally and cognitively from their work in
an effort to cope with feelings of exhaustion. Exhausted
teachers do not have the capacity to proactively
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Stress, Burnout and Depressive Symptoms

respond to the needs of their students and, as a result,

are often indifferent or cynical towards others and nd
it difcult to feel a sense of accomplishment and pride
in their work. They feel victimized, have low self
esteem and have no longterm goals to strive for, often
characterized by extended sick leaves or positional
transfer requests (Maslach, 1993).
The view of burnout as a psychological syndrome is
also supported utilizing principles derived from equity
theory. According to this theory, individuals have a
tendency to pursue reciprocity in interpersonal
relationships and feel distressed when relationships
are inequitable. For teachers, their investments of
enthusiasm and effort are reciprocated when students
respond with attention, respect and gratitude (Blase,
1982, 1986; Blau, 1964). A lack of reciprocity can
deplete the teachers emotional resources and fuel the
development of the burnout syndrome (Bakker et al.,
2000; Farber, 1991). Theoretically, chronic work stress
leads to teacher burnout and hence to depression
(Bakker et al., 2000). We follow this conceptual
framework in our study, allowing burnout to mediate
the relationship between stress and depression. We also
indicate a direct effect from work stress to depressive
symptoms as work stress has been identied as a risk
factor for the development of major depressive
episodes (Wang, 2005) and shown to precipitate the
development of anxiety and depression in previously
healthy individuals (Melchior et al., 2007).
In addition to the observed relationships among
chronic work stress, burnout and depression, a variety
of demographic characteristics have been found to relate
to burnout and subsequent depression. Although studies
are relatively few, and ndings are generally inconsistent
(see reviews by Chang, 2009; Schaufeli & Enzmann,
1998), these characteristics include sociodemographic
(age, gender, ethnicity and education level) and
jobrelated characteristics (grade level taught and years
of teaching experience). Age has been most consistently
related to burnout, with younger employees reporting
higher levels of burnout than older employees (Maslach
et al., 2001). With regard to gender, some studies have
found no difference in the prevalence of burnout between
genders (Ahola et al., 2005; Hastings & Bham, 2003),
whereas others suggest that women experience higher
levels of emotional exhaustion and men experience
higher levels of depersonalization (Lackritz, 2004;
Schwarzer & Hallum, 2008). In one study, men who
reported serious burnout were three times more likely
to experience major depression than women were
(Ahola et al., 2005). There have only been a few studies
examining ethnicity and burnout, and they have resulted
in mixed ndings: no difference (Lackritz, 2004), greater
burnout among minorities (Dyrbye et al., 2007) and
greater burnout among nonminorities (McCarty, Zhao,
& Garland, 2007). Similarly, the education level of
teachers has an uncertain relationship with burnout.
Burnout has been found to occur more frequently in
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Stress, Burnout and Depressive Symptoms

teachers with lower levels of education (Demir, Ulusoy, &

Ulusoy, 2003; Friedman, 1991), higher levels of education
(Maslach et al., 2001) or to have no relationship at all with
education (Embich, 2001). With regard to jobrelated
characteristics, high school teachers report greater
burnout than teachers of lower grades (Beer & Beer,
1992; Russell, Altmaier, & Van Velzen, 1987). Conicting
results have been found for level of teaching experience,
with some studies nding that greater experience
decreases burnout (Demir et al., 2003; Maslach et al.,
2001) whereas others suggest teachers with greater
experience are more burned out (Friedman, 1991).
In summary, teachers experiencing burnout feel
dissatised and exhausted, alienate themselves from
fellow teachers and their students, are less productive
and experience greater health problems (Chan, 2003;
Maslach et al., 2001). Although previous studies have
examined the independent relationships between work
stress, teacher burnout and depressive symptoms, we
know of no study that has examined the chronic nature
of teacher stress on burnout and depressive symptoms
in a single model while controlling for a variety of
demographic characteristics. Therefore, the purpose of
this study was to test a conceptual model examining
the three burnout subscales (emotional exhaustion,
depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment) as mediators of the association between chronic
work stress and depressive symptoms while controlling
for a variety of demographic characteristics. Based on
previous research, we hypothesized that after controlling
for demographic characteristics, (1) chronic work stress
would have a signicant direct effect on depressive
symptoms and each subscale of burnout, (2) each
subscale of burnout would have a direct effect on
depressive symptoms and (3) each subscale of burnout
would mediate the relationship between chronic work
stress and depressive symptoms.

Method
Participants and procedure
Participants
The study participants (n = 267) were primarily female
(75%) with a mean age of 45 years, ranging from 23 to
68 years. Demographically, 86% were White, 8%
Hispanic or Latino, 3% AfricanAmerican and less than
1% each of Native American and Asian American. Most
teachers had a bachelors degree (55%), although 43%
held a masters degree, and 2% had attained a doctorate
degree. The majority were high school teachers (75%),
with the remaining teaching either middle school (13%)
or elementary school (12%). Overall, the sample was
highly experienced, with an average of 18 years of
teaching experience. Only 12% of the sample had less
than 5 years of teaching experience; 69% had over
10 years of experience, and 43% had over 20 years of
experience. Further, 22% of the teachers had received a
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M. A. Steinhardt et al.

prestigious Teaching Excellence Award from the university conducting the study.
Procedures
A crosssectional selfreport survey methodology was
used. Researchers obtained a convenience sample of
public school teachers who had received teaching awards
from an alumni association at a large research institution
in Texas. Since 1987, the alumni association has
recognized public school teachers representing every
school size, from every Texas geographic area, in every
subject matter and with degrees from any university in
the United States on an annual basis. Each year, school
principals can nominate one teacher to represent their
school. To be eligible for the award, teachers must be full
time, have a minimum of 10 years of classroom teaching
experience and return to teaching the following year. Ten
high school (grades 912) and two elementary or middle
school (grades 18) teachers are awarded each year;
selection of the awardwinning teachers is made by a
panel composed of former recipients, education faculty, a
future teacher and alumni leaders.
Subject recruitment for the current study included
sending a survey packet in the mail to all awardwinning
teachers who were still teaching and had current
mailing addresses (n = 170). The packet contained a
cover letter explaining the purpose of the study, six
copies of the survey and stamped envelopes for the
convenient return of the surveys to the researchers.
The awardwinning teachers were directed to ll out
one survey and distribute the other ve packets to
fellow teachers that they felt represented a variety of
teaching experience and ability. Included in each survey
packet was a small deck of inspirational quote cards
(valued at $5) that provided a little incentive for
completing the survey. To protect the anonymity of
each participant, an additional stamped and addressed
postcard was included in each survey packet to allow
the potential participant to be entered into a draw for
the chance to receive an autographed university football (valued at $100), a university Tshirt (valued at $19)
or a gift card (valued at $15) for completing the survey.
One incentive was awarded for every 10 surveys
received. All responses were anonymous and completed
at a time and location of the teachers convenience.
The nal sample consisted of n = 267 teachers,
representing a moderate response rate of 26% (Alreck
& Settle, 2004).
Instruments
The survey included demographic characteristics and
selfreport measures of perceived chronic work stress,
teacher burnout and depressive symptoms. Each of
these measures is described below.
Demographics
Teachers reported their age, gender, ethnicity, education level, grade level taught, years of teaching experience
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M. A. Steinhardt et al.

Stress, Burnout and Depressive Symptoms

measure was strong (Cronbachs alpha = 0.93). A copy

of the survey may be obtained by contacting the rst
author. To examine the concurrent validity of our
chronic work stress measure, a fouritem version of the
Perceived Stress Scale (PSS; Cohen, Kamarck, &
Mermelstein, 1983) was administered; our measure
correlated well (r = 0.54, p < 0.001) with the PSS.

and whether they had received a teaching award from the

university conducting the study. Because these demographic characteristics may be related to burnout, the
current study statistically controlled for them in the
estimation of the impacts of chronic work stress and
teacher burnout on depressive symptoms. Because of the
high correlation between age and years of teaching
experience (r = 0.81), age was omitted as a control
variable.

Teacher burnout
The Maslach Burnout InventoryEducators Survey
(MBIES) assessed burnout among the teachers
(Maslach et al., 1996). The MBIES measures all three
subscales of burnout: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment. The
teachers were asked how often they experienced
emotional exhaustion (nine items), depersonalization
(ve items) and reduced personal accomplishment
(eight items) on a Likert scale ranging from 0 (never)
to 6 (every day). Sample subscale items included I feel
emotionally drained from my work, I dont really care
what happens to some students and I deal very
effectively with the problems of my students. The
score for each subscale was the mean across the items
for that particular subscale, with higher scores
indicating greater burnout. Reliability was strong for
emotional exhaustion ( = 0.90) and acceptable for
depersonalization ( = 0.75) and reduced personal
accomplishment ( = 0.76).

Perceived chronic work stress

The unrelenting nature of chronic stressors creates
more detrimental effects on physical and mental health
than acute stressors (Lepore, 1998; McEwen, 2002).
Although previous studies have examined the sources
of stress in teachers (Kyriacou, 2001; Maslach et al.,
2001; Montgomery & Rupp, 2005), none have used a
comprehensive chronic stress measure that assesses
exposure, appraisal and duration of each stressor. Our
perceived chronic work stress measure is a modied
version of the Teacher Stress Inventory (Fimian, 1984),
adapted to include additional potential stressful
situations as well as an assessment of exposure,
appraisal and duration of each stressful situation. The
modied measure assessed 41 commonly occurring
stressful situations and asked whether the teacher had
experienced each situation within the past year (coded
as 1) or had not experienced the situation (0). If a
stressful situation was experienced, the teacher also
indicated how negative, undesirable or upsetting the
situation was on a Likert scale from 0 (not at all) to 4
(extremely). Finally, teachers reported the number of
months that each stressful situation had been experienced during the current academic year, ranging from
the beginning of school in September (1 month) to
when the survey was completed in March (7 months).
Four sample items are included in Table I. To score
each item, the exposure rating was multiplied by both
the appraisal and duration ratings. The chronic work
stress score was then calculated by averaging all the
items. The internal consistency of the modied

Depressive symptoms
The Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression
Scale (CESD) measured depressive symptoms such as
a depressed mood, feelings of guilt, worthlessness,
helplessness, loss of appetite and restless sleep (Radloff,
1977). The teachers responded to 20 items that asked
how often they felt or behaved according to each item
during the past week. Sample items included I was
bothered by things that usually dont bother me and
I felt depressed. Responses ranged from 0 (rarely or
none of the time, less than 1 day) to 3 (most or all of
the time, 57 days) and were averaged across items for

Table I. Sample items for the perceived chronic work stress measure
Experienced?
No

Yes

If Yes, how negative, undesirable or upsetting?

Not at all

A little

Moderately

Very

If Yes, how long?

Extremely

How many months

experienced?
<1 to 7 months

1. Not enough time to

get things done
2. Too much paperwork
3. Administration not
supportive enough
4. Attending to students who
are poorly motivated

No

Yes

____months

No
No

Yes
Yes

0
0

1
1

2
2

3
3

4
4

____months
____months

No

Yes

____months

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M. A. Steinhardt et al.

Stress, Burnout and Depressive Symptoms

a total score. A CESD mean score of 0.8 or greater is

considered a moderately severe level of depressive
symptoms (Radloff, 1977). The reliability of the CESD
for the current study was strong ( = 0.92).
Analysis
We performed a path analysis to test the relationships
depicted in Figure 1 while controlling for demographic
variables (gender, minority status, years of teaching
experience, whether the teacher was an award winner and
whether the teacher was employed at a high school versus
an elementary or middle school). In Figure 1, the
relationship between chronic work stress and depressive
symptoms is mediated by three different subscales of
burnout. Thus, the model tests several types of effects: the
direct effects of chronic work stress on depressive
symptoms and each of the three subscales of burnout,
and of the three subscales of burnout on depressive
symptoms; the specic indirect effect of chronic work
stress on depressive symptoms through each subscale of
burnout (or the unique mediating effect of each
component of burnout controlling for the other two
components of burnout as well as the demographic
controls); the total indirect effect of chronic work stress on
depressive symptoms (or the sum of each of the three
specic indirect effects); and the total effect of work stress
on depressive symptoms (or the sum of the direct and
total indirect effect).
Social science researchers have traditionally estimated a given indirect effect through a series of
regression models (Baron & Kenny, 1986) and tested
its signicance using the wellknown Sobel (1982,
1986) test or other tests relying on the standard normal

distribution (e.g. MacKinnon, Lockwood, Hoffman,

West, & Sheets, 2002). However, the assumption of a
normal sampling distribution for the indirect effect is
typically violated with relatively small sample sizes such
as the one in this study. Accordingly, many methodologists now recommend a bootstrapping approach,
which does not rely on a standard normal distribution,
to calculate the standard errors of indirect paths (e.g.
Briggs, 2006; Williams & MacKinnon, 2008).
In simple multiplemediator models such as the one
under study, it is sensible to assume a saturated model,
which then allows the researcher to test the unique
effects of each mediating variable (Preacher & Hayes,
2008). Saturated mediation models including only
observed variables may be estimated through either the
traditional regressionbased approach or a structural
equation modelling package; provided that standard
errors are appropriately calculated via bootstrapping,
the two approaches yield the same results. Accordingly, we conducted our analysis via the traditional
regressionbased approach with bootstrapped standard
errors for the indirect effects, using an SPSS macro
(SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) explicitly designed to
estimate multiplemediation models (Preacher &
Hayes, 2008). For indirect paths, this analysis produces
point estimates and three varieties (percentile, bias
corrected, and biascorrected and accelerated) of
bootstrapped 95% condence intervals; the analysis
also allows the researcher to conduct pairwise
comparisons of the indirect effects to determine
whether a particular mediator has a signicantly
stronger unique indirect effect in comparison to
another mediator. All variables were standardized

Emotional
exhaustion
0.38***

0.61***

0.13*

Chronic Work
Stress
0.38***

Depressive
Symptoms

0.13*

Depersonalization

0.11*

0.28***

Reduced personal
accomplishment
Note: *p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, and *** p < 0.001
Controlling

for Years taught, Award, High

school, Female, and Minority

Model R-squared = 0.43

Indirect effect of stress on
depressive symptoms = 0.32***
Total effect of stress on
depressive symptoms = 0.44***

Figure 1 Path analysis of the relationship between chronic work stress and depressive symptoms and the mediating role of teacher burnout

424

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M. A. Steinhardt et al.

Stress, Burnout and Depressive Symptoms

Results

more years of teaching experience and were more likely to

have won an award. Control variables were not strongly
related to chronic work stress, burnout or depressive
symptoms; although there were some signicant correlations, they were small in size. More experienced and
awardwinning teachers reported less burnout and
depressive symptoms, teachers in high school reported
greater depressive symptoms and reduced personal
accomplishment and females reported greater chronic
work stress and emotional exhaustion (Table II).

Descriptive analysis
For all data analyses, years of teaching experience was
retained as a continuous variable. Multiplecategory
demographic variables were collapsed into binary variables in order to construct appropriately sized groups for
analysis: award (0 = did not receive a teaching excellence
award, 1 = received an award), high school (0 = teaches
primary or middle school, 1 = teaches high school),
female (0 = male, 1 = female), minority (0 = nonminority,
1 = minority) and advanced degree (0 = bachelors degree,
1 = masters or doctorate).
Table II displays the means, standard deviations
and correlations for all study variables. Each of the
burnout subscales was signicantly correlated with the
other subscales, the highest correlation being between
the emotional exhaustion and depersonalization
subscales. Chronic work stress was strongly correlated
with both emotional exhaustion and depressive symptoms. Mean scores for teacher burnout and depressive
symptoms were slightly higher than those in similar
studies on teacher burnout (Bakker et al., 2000;
Brenninkmeyer, Van Yperen, & Buunk, 2001; Grayson
& Alvarez, 2008).
The strongest association among the control variables
was between winning an award and years of teaching
experience; also, teachers with an advanced degree had

Path analysis
In terms of the standardized direct effects shown in
Figure 1, teachers who experienced high degrees of stress
were more burned out in terms of emotional exhaustion
(b = 0.61, p < 0.001), depersonalization (b = 0.38,
p < 0.001) and reduced personal accomplishment
(b = 0.28, p < 0.001). Of the three components of
burnout, emotional exhaustion was moderately and
positively related to depressive symptoms (b = 0.38,
p < 0.001), whereas depersonalization (b = 0.13,
p < 0.05) and reduced personal accomplishment
(b = 0.11, p < 0.05) had only small positive relationships
with depressive symptoms. After controlling for the three
components of burnout, as well as the set of demographic
controls, the direct relationship between chronic work
stress and depressive symptoms was small (b = 0.13,
p < 0.05). Variables included as controls (not shown in
Figure 1) had small to negligible relationships with
depressive symptoms; only high school had a signicant
relationship (b = 0.10, p < 0.05), indicating that high
school teachers experienced slightly more depressive
symptoms than primary and middle school teachers.
In terms of specic indirect effects, the indirect
effect of chronic work stress on depressive symptoms
via emotional exhaustion was moderate and positive
(b = 0.23), with all three types of condence intervals

prior to inclusion in the analysis, yielding standardized

coefcients for all effects (reported below and in
Figure 1). The mediation analysis approach required
us to drop seven teachers with partially missing data
from the analysis, resulting in a nal sample size of
n = 260. Bivariate relationships, however, were almost
identical between this completedata subsample and
the full sample of n = 267.

Table II. Means, standard deviations (SD) and correlations for all variables (n = 267)
Variable

SD

CWS

Burnout
EE

Chronic work stress (CWS)

Emotional exhaustion (EE)
Depersonalization (DP)
Reduced personal
accomplishment (RPA)
Depressive symptoms (DS)
Years taught
Award
High school
Female
Minority
Advanced degree

DP

0.63***
0.38***
0.29***

0.65***
0.43***

0.46***

0.53 0.45 0.47***

0.03

0.10

0.07

0.16*

0.04

0.05

0.61***
0.16**
0.18**
0.08
0.14*
0.03
0.12

0.49***
0.15*
0.20**
0.11
0.03
0.04
0.00

6.55
2.64
1.31
1.03

4.63
1.22
1.14
0.81

DS
RPA

Control
Years
taught

Award

High
school

Female

Minority

0.39***

0.15*
0.20**

0.26** 0.16** 0.44**

0.13*
0.15*
0.00
0.05

0.05
0.09
0.03
0.07
0.11

0.02
0.05
0.10
0.09
0.13* 0.18**
0.02
0.11
0.29** 0.21** 0.11 0.12

0.01

*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.

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Stress, Burnout and Depressive Symptoms

indicating a signicant effect. However, indirect effects

via depersonalization (b = 0.05) and reduced personal
accomplishment (b = 0.03) were negligible, with all
three types of condence intervals indicating lack of
signicance. Pairwise comparisons of the three indirect
effects indicated that the mediating effect of emotional
exhaustion was signicantly stronger than the mediating effects of either depersonalization or reduced
personal accomplishment. Taking together the direct
and indirect effects via burnout, the total effect of stress
on depressive symptoms was strong and positive
(b = 0.44, p < 0.001). The overall model accounted for
43% of the total variance in depressive symptoms.

Discussion
The literature suggests that high levels of work stress
precipitate depression (Melchior et al., 2007; Wang,
2005). The current crosssectional study provides further
support for this relationship such that chronic work
stress has a direct relationship with depressive symptoms
and an indirect effect on depressive symptoms via
burnout, in a sample of highly experienced public school
teachers. Although we expected that each of the three
components of burnout would carry a unique mediating
effect, only emotional exhaustion served as a signicant
mediator between chronic work stress and depressive
symptoms after controlling for the other two components of burnout. The study also supports the
relationship between work stress and teacher burnout.
Of the three components of burnout, chronic work
stress was most related to higher levels of emotional
exhaustion, followed by depersonalization and reduced
personal accomplishment.
The connection between work stress and burnout
suggests that the alleviation of stressors or the adoption
of effective coping strategies could aid in reducing the
prevalence of burnout in the teacher population. For
example, organizational stressors have repeatedly been
found to determine levels of emotional exhaustion,
especially when support is lacking (Leiter, 1991a,
1991b), suggesting that the coping strategy of enhanced
support could moderate the negative impact of chronic
stress on emotional exhaustion. The fact that emotional exhaustion is dened as the stress component of
the burnout syndrome helps explain why teachers
typically exhibit higher levels of emotional exhaustion
than the other two components (Maslach et al., 2001;
Schaufeli & Enzmann, 1998).
The positive relationships between each of the three
components of burnout and depression support the
assertion that burnout may be a phase in the development of depression, with the probability of a depressive
disorder rising with the level of burnout experienced
(Ahola et al., 2005; Wang, 2005). Of the three
components of burnout, emotional exhaustion was most
strongly connected to depressive symptoms, with
depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment
related to a much lesser degree. This nding aligns with
426

M. A. Steinhardt et al.

the work of Bakker and Schaufeli (2000), in which

emotional exhaustion and depression share symptoms,
such as decreased energy, low motivation and negative
attitudes (Schaufeli & Enzmann, 1998).
One potential mechanism by which emotional
exhaustion and depression may be linked is via individual
personality factors such as neuroticism. Depression is
part of the neurotic personality (McCrae & John, 1992),
and emotional exhaustion and neuroticism are correlated
(CanoGarcia, PadillaMunoz, & CarrascoOrtiz, 2005;
Piedmont, 1993; Tnjes, Dickhuser, & Krner, 2008).
Neurotic individuals express more negative emotions and
greater stress reactions, leaving them more susceptible to
both burnout and psychopathology (Watson, Clark,
& Harkness, 1994). A metaanalytic study (Pfenning &
Husch, 1994 in Schaufeli & Enzmann, 1998) found that
anxiety, a factor of neuroticism, correlated most highly
with emotional exhaustion, followed by depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment. Similarly,
Deary et al. (1996) found that neuroticism correlated
most strongly with emotional exhaustion, followed by
depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment. Neuroticism also may moderate the relationship
between daily hassles and emotional exhaustion, with
neurotic police ofcers experiencing higher levels of
emotional exhaustion than their less neurotic colleagues
(Hills & Norvell, 1991). Given the evidence linking
neuroticism to both emotional exhaustion and depression, it is possible that neuroticism is an underlying cause
of both.
Although chronic work stress was related to each
component of burnout and each component of burnout
was in turn related to depressive symptoms, only
emotional exhaustion served as a signicant mediator
between chronic work stress and depressive symptoms.
This nding strengthens the notion that emotional
exhaustion is the central component that makes burnout
real to the teacher and serves as the emotional vector
translating feelings of stress into depression. It is
important to note, however, that emotional exhaustion
alone does not embody the burnout syndrome (Maslach,
1993). Rather, burnout is a selfperpetuating syndrome
in which all three components must be present. When
stress accumulates to an unbearable level, teachers begin
to feel emotionally exhausted and withdraw themselves
from their work. Depersonalizing as a coping mechanism
enables the teacher to continue in the profession, albeit
functioning at a minimum (Holt, Fine, & Tollefson,
1987). Given that teachers list their sense of achievement
as a primary reward for teaching (Engelking, 1986),
functioning at a minimum may in turn exacerbate
withdrawal and a sense of exhaustion. Because this self
perpetuating process is difcult to stop once it begins,
the current studys nding points to the need to address
the prolonged exposure to stressful situations, frequently
accompanied by insufcient recovery, that teachers
often experience and that initially lead to emotional
exhaustion.
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M. A. Steinhardt et al.

From a practical standpoint, interventions targeted

to reduce burnout and the depressive symptoms of
teachers might be most effective if designed to focus
primarily on stress prevention and stressrelated
growth and secondarily on stress management. A
proactive stress prevention approach would assist
teachers in building personal resources and broadening
their coping skills in order to diminish the connection
between chronic stress and emotional exhaustion. In
this approach, personal and environmental resources
(e.g. locus of control, selfesteem, coping strategies,
positivity, support from colleagues and administrators)
would be identied, strengthened and used to help
reduce initial perceptions of stress, build resilience
(OLeary & Ickovics, 1995) and enhance job engagement
(Maslach & Leiter, 2008). Further, it has been suggested
that growth occurs as a result of stressful situations when
individuals have a sufcient foundation of personal
resources yet sufcient distress to merit an examination
of current beliefs and feelings in the context of past
stressors and adaptations (Carver, 1998). As such,
depressive symptoms may serve as a catalyst to disrupt
and then help constructively reshape the basic beliefs
about oneself and ones job (Dolbier, Smith Jaggars,
& Steinhardt, 2010).
In addition to proactive interventions that focus on
stress prevention and stress growth, secondary interventions could help teachers deal more effectively with
prolonged exposure to chronic emotional and interpersonal stressors, accompanied by insufcient recovery,
burnout and decreased health (Wood & McCarthy,
2002). Such approaches include more traditional reactive
stress management programmes, which help burnedout
teachers cope more effectively in an attempt to buffer
against negative health outcomes, including depressive
symptoms. Both teachers and administrators should be
made aware of the characteristics of burnout and how to
identify burnout in themselves and others. If support can
be provided to teachers experiencing burnout, it is
possible that the burnout can be managed prior to the
development of depression or other negative health
outcomes.
Interventions designed to reduce the syndrome of
burnout should have a primary focus on the emotional
exhaustion component, given that it is the stress
component of burnout and a signicantly stronger
mediator of depressive symptoms than either depersonalization or reduced personal accomplishment. Indeed,
programmes that have been shown to decrease burnout
in medical residents (McCue & Sachs, 1991), health care
workers (Hyman, 1993) and members of human
resource management teams (Golembiewski, Hilles,
& Daly, 1987) reported a reduction in the subcomponent
emotional exhaustion. These programmes addressed
burnout as a syndrome, emphasizing practices that help
individuals to destress as well as to successfully manage
stressful situations by harnessing effective coping strategies and building social support networks. Undoubtedly,
Stress and Health 27: 420429 (2011) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Stress, Burnout and Depressive Symptoms

individuals who utilize more problemfocused coping

skills and receive more social support from their
supervisors and colleagues are less likely to experience
high levels of emotional exhaustion (Ito & Brotheridge,
2003; McCarthy, Kissen, Yadley, Wood, & Lambert,
2006; Wilk & Moynihan, 2005).
With regard to demographics, previous studies have
shown that age, gender, ethnicity, education level, grade
level taught and level of work experience may affect
burnout and depression. As such, the present study
controlled for these six factors in the estimation of the
impacts of chronic work stress and burnout on
depression. Importantly, teachers with more teaching
experience or who had received a teaching award
reported stress levels similar to the entire sample yet
were more likely to report lower levels of depressive
symptoms, suggesting that they were handling the stress
more effectively. Finally, teachers that taught at the high
school level were found to have more depressive
symptoms than elementary and middle school teachers.
This nding aligns with that of Beer and Beer (1992), who
found that high school teachers experienced more stress,
burnout and depression than grade school teachers.
Future qualitative research should help determine the
reason for the heightened depressive symptoms that high
school teachers experience.
The implications for this study should be viewed in
light of several limitations. Firstly, the study was cross
sectional in nature, and therefore causal inference and
temporal precedence cannot be determined. It is possible
that other variables account for some of the observed
relationships or that depressive symptoms reciprocally
contribute to chronic work stress and teacher burnout.
Future research should use a prospective design to further
examine the nature of the predictive relationships
between chronic work stress, burnout and depressive
symptoms across time. Likewise, a prospective design
would allow for assessment of the stress levels teachers
experience over the course of the academic year, as there
is some evidence that it may vary (Travers & Cooper,
1996). Better procedures for assessing the chronic nature
of stressors (e.g. exposure, appraised as stressful,
unrelenting) are needed. Secondly, the use of selfreport
survey data has inherent limitations, such as the potential
for untruthful or inaccurate responses due to lack of self
awareness. Although the use of anonymous surveys
enhanced the strength of the study, future research
should include objective observations of chronic work
stressors, burnout and veriable depression. The studys
response rate of 26% was only moderate, and information is not available about the nonrespondents.
Additionally, the rather selective sampling procedure of
asking one teacher to select ve other teachers to
complete the survey resulted in a sample that did not
represent any denable population. Our sample was
highly experienced with an average of 18 years of
teaching, and 22% had received a prestigious teaching
excellence award; therefore, the results may not be
427

M. A. Steinhardt et al.

Stress, Burnout and Depressive Symptoms

generalized to a sample of novice teachers. Finally, in

addition to assessing predictors of job burnout and
depressive symptoms, further research should also assess
the predictors of job engagement and positive health
outcomes. Although a necessary and important perspective, a decitoriented approach provides a limited view

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