Poster #74 - Examining Teachers' Professional Well-Being: A Validation Study

• In Event: 1-115 - Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Section - Education, Schooling

Integrative Statement

Teachers spend more time with children than any other professional in fields of child service provision, which places them at risk for developing negative secondary consequences when their students have been exposed to trauma. Like others in helping roles, teachers may experience symptoms of secondary traumatic stress (STS), or emotional disturbances akin to those of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), that often manifest when working with trauma-exposed populations (Figley, 1995; Bride, 2007; Knight, 2013; Motta, 2012). Teachers are also at risk for burnout, an occupational stressor distinct from STS, characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment (Maslach et al., 2011). Despite these threats to their professional well-being, teachers may also be positively impacted by their work with children, often referred to as compassion satisfaction, or the pleasure derived from helping others (Stamm, 2010). In an effort to better understand STS, burnout, and compassion satisfaction among teachers, the current study will examine the validity of the Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL; Stamm, 2010) for teachers, a standard tool used to examine these constructs among other helping professions.
The goal of the proposed study is to use data collected from teachers at charter schools in New Orleans to perform a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for the ProQOL to examine its factor structure specifically among this understudied population. Based on findings from prior research, preliminary analyses were run in which four models were fitted to the data to evaluate the psychometric properties of the three subscales (Secondary Traumatic Stress, Burnout, and Compassion Satisfaction). The CFA was conducted using data from 130 teachers in New Orleans charter schools. Items were trimmed and moved when doing so was supported by low factor loadings and theory. Results for the fourth and final fitted model improved previous models by including a fourth factor, in which the burnout subscale was split into two distinct latent variables, a traditional burnout scale and an emotional well-being scale (Sprang and Craig, 2015). This model proved to be an adequate fit for the model with several model fit indices indicating or approaching criteria for a good fit (see Table 1).
The original ProQOL measure demonstrated significant challenges in measuring STS and burnout among teachers, though the compassion satisfaction subscale appeared to fit the model well based on factor loadings and internal consistency scores (see Figure 1). Findings from the current study add to only a handful of other studies that have attempted to validate the ProQOL among helping professions. Of these studies almost all have made similarly significant changes to the factor structure of the ProQOL (Galiana et al., 2017; Musa & Hamid, 2008; Samson et al., 2016; Sprang & Craig, 2015), suggesting that more research is needed to understand differential experiences of professionals and their well-being within their helping roles. As such, this study represents the first step of a comprehensive research agenda needed to better understand the impact of these occupational stressors on teachers.

Authors

• Lea Petrovic, Tulane University
  Presenting Author

• Kathryn A Simon, Tulane University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Stacy L Overstreet, Tulane University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Courtney N. Baker, Tulane University
  Non-Presenting Author