The impact of resilience on role stressors and burnout in elementary and secondary teachers

The role of a teacher is becoming increasingly complex, and it is more important than ever that teachers develop resilience to overcome stress and burnout. A conceptual framework to explain the ability of resilience to decrease role stress and burnout was developed and tested. Participants included 415 teachers (174 elementary, 241 secondary) who taught in three adjacent school districts in the Midwest of the United States. Data were collected through a cross-sectional survey that included measures of resilience, role stressors, and burnout. Structural equation modeling was used to test the conceptual framework, and invariance analysis examined the equivalence of relationships across elementary and secondary teacher groups. Results generally supported the conceptual framework, and commonly experienced pathways were found to be invariant across groups. This study emphasizes the importance of resilience in helping to reduce perceived teacher stress and feelings of burnout.