Self-efficacy in eliciting social support and burnout among secondary-school teachers

A nonrecursive model with relationships between perceived lack of social su pport, perceived self-efficacy in eliciting support at the workplace, and t he 3 successive burnout dimensions-emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment-was tested in a sample of 277 secondary-school teachers in The Netherlands. Results showed that teachers' perceived lack of support from colleagues and principals had a significant effect on their self-efficacy beliefs in eliciting support from them, while these self-eff icacy beliefs were shown to predict their level of burnout. The hypothesize d feedback loop was also confirmed: Teachers' level of burnout predicted th e extent to which they feel lack of support. An additional effect of the pe rsonal-accomplishment dimension of burnout on perceived self-efficacy was s uggested. It was concluded that perceived self-efficacy in eliciting suppor t at the workplace is a usable construct in the prediction of teacher burno ut. Future directions in research are suggested.