BURNOUT - TESTING FOR THE VALIDITY, REPLICATION, AND INVARIANCE OF CAUSAL-STRUCTURE ACROSS ELEMENTARY, INTERMEDIATE, AND SECONDARY TEACHERS

The study investigated the impact of organizational (role ambiguity, r ole conflict, work overload, classroom climate, decision making, super ior support, peer support) and personality (self-esteem, external locu s of control) factors on three facets of burnout-Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and reduced Personal Accomplishment within one con ceptual framework. Participants were full-time elementary (n = 1203), intermediate (n = 410), and secondary teachers (n = 1431). A hypothesi zed model of burnout was first tested and crossvalidated for each teac hing panel; common causal paths were then tested for group-invariance. Results were consistent across groups in revealing the importance of (a) role conflict, work overload, classroom climate, decision making, and peer support as organizational determinants of teacher burnout, (b ) self-esteem and external locus of control as important mediators of teacher burnout, and (c) the absence of role ambiguity and superior su pport in the causal process. Findings demonstrated that interpretation s of burnout as a undimensional construct are not meaningful.