CORRELATION BETWEEN MENTAL HEALTH, WORK PRESSURE AND JOB BURNOUT OF MUSIC TEACHERS

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Revista Argentina de Clínica Psicológica 2020, Vol. XXIX, N°2, 542-549

DOI: 10.24205/03276716.2020.275 542

CORRELATION BETWEEN MENTAL HEALTH,

WORK PRESSURE AND

JOB BURNOUT OF MUSIC TEACHERS

Xiting Yang

Abstract

Many music teachers are faced with severe work pressure. Their mental health and job burnout call for more attention from the academia. This paper attempts to identify the correlation between mental health, work pressure and job burnout of music teachers. Thus, a questionnaire survey was carried out among music teachers in the primary and secondary schools in a Chinese city, and the collected data were statistically analyzed in such dimensions as gender, age and martial status. The results show that mental health, work pressure and job burnout of music teachers are affected by gender, age, marital status and education level; the work pressure of music teachers is positively correlated with job burnout and negatively with mental health; the job burnout of music teachers is negatively correlated with the mental health factors, i.e. positive mental health factors can relieve the job burnout. This study provides a theoretical support for improving the mental health of music teachers.

Key words: Music Teaching, Mental Health, Work Pressure, Job Burnout, Emotions Received: 12-03-19 | Accepted: 14-09-19

INTRODUCTION

With the rapid development of quality education, the comprehensive development of students has become the trend of modern education. The comprehensive development of morality, intelligence, physique and aesthetics has been valued by parents and schools (Leung, Wah Mak, Yu Chui et al., 2009; Shyman, 2009; Boshoff, Potgieter, Van Rensburg et al., 2014). As a course or a skill that cultivates students' sentiment and increases their living and learning interests, music is gradually favored by parents and students. In addition to the music courses set by schools, more and more students are starting to participate in some music teaching institutions or asking for special music teachers to improve their music skills (Zimmermann, Unterbrink, Pfeifer et al., 2012; Bogg & Cooper,

College of Music and Dance, Huaqiao University, Xiamen 361021, China

E-Mail: [email protected]

1995; Ghaddar, Mateo, & Sanchez, 2008). These music educators have a series of work pressures stem from curriculum preparation, music professional skills lecturing, teaching pressure from the parents, and student quality training, etc., and they also need to overcome setbacks such as vocational competition and environmental changes (Sackey & Sanda, 2009; Babazono, Mino, Nagano et al., 2005).

In the teaching work, long-term work pressure and stressful emotions have adversely affected the mental health of music teachers, and also caused job burnout to some extent (Kageyama, Matsuzaki, Morita et al., 2001; Rebergen, Hoenen, Heinemans et al., 2006). Under the feedback mechanism of the environment, the mental health, work pressure and job burnout of music teachers directly affect the quality of teaching, thereby restricting the cultivation of music talents and the learning environment of students (Hardaker, Halcomb, Griffiths et al., 2007; Lutzker & Whitaker, 2005). Therefore, in the stage of modern education, it’s

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understand the influencing factors of the music

educators’ or even all teachers’ mental health status, causes of their work pressure and job burnout, and to explore the psychological state of teachers and the methods to alleviate their work pressure.

Based on the above problems, with the work pressure and mental health status of music teachers as an example, this paper combines questionnaire survey and mathematical statistics to investigate the work pressure, job burnout, and mental health status of music teachers in a certain region based on psychology, the pressure of teacher profession and other related theories, and analyze the correlation between the job burnout, the mental health, and the work pressure of teachers. At last, in view of the various problems faced by teachers, effective measures for regulating their job burnout are proposed. This paper provides a theoretical basis for studying the mental health of music teachers and relieving and preventing their job burnout, it also has certain theoretical and social value for improving the quality of music teaching and promoting the development of music education.

RELATED THEORIES FOR THE MENTAL HEALTH OF MUSIC TEACHERS

Related theories of mental health and work pressure

Mental health is an important foundation for the life and work of individuals, it is also an indispensable part of the individuals’ health and their overall development. Mental health refers to the fact that when individuals are in a good mental state, their emotional reactions, concerted actions, and cognitive activities are all in a positive state, they can regulate themselves properly, thereby exerting their physical and mental potential. As an important profession for educating students to cultivate worldviews and impart professional skills and knowledge to them, for the teacher group, the mental health requirement is higher than ordinary occupations, it is also an important prerequisite for teachers to be competent for their work (Jiang, Du, & Dong, 2017; Schonfeld, 1991; Sun, Wu, & Wang, 2011). Teachers' mental health also has a direct influence on the development of students' mental health, world outlook, outlook on life and values. Only teachers who love the

positive attitudes, and ability to adjust the individual work pressure can create a harmonious and positive educational environment, so as to promote the individual development of students and the cultivation of positive attitudes. Especially for the workers engaged in music teaching, the cultivation of students' music interest and the development of their music skills have a deep internal relation with the mental health and teaching attitude of the teachers, which requires the music teachers to pay attention to it.

The occupational pressure of teachers generally refers to the negative and unpleasant emotions of individuals generated during the teaching process, including anxiety, dejection, depression, anger, and other bad emotions. Researchers believe that these negative emotions and pressure of teachers are triggered by the fact that they believe that their work environment and work experience have different degrees of adverse effects on their emotions and physical and mental health. If these unhealthy mental states and emotions are not resolved or effectively dealt with for a long time, they will gradually spread in their life, affecting their normal teaching work and daily life. In the same way, for music teachers who teach music skills, they are under certain teaching pressure for a long time, so they have formed a typical occupational pressure status, which is not conducive to their career development.

Related theories for the job burnout of music teachers

Job burnout is defined by scholars as the physiological and psychological response of practitioners in the working environment due to long-term emotional and interpersonal relationship problems. Work pressure and job burnout are two completely different concepts. Work pressure is generally caused by the individual's belief that the requirement of the job is inconsistent with their own abilities, while job burnout is a negative emotion generated by the individual's belief that their work effort and reward are inconsistent, and emotional factors are the main reason. If the work pressure that can't be solved for a long time eventually reaches an uncontrollable state, it will generate job burnout, but not all occupational pressure can lead to job burnout. Therefore, the music

teachers’ way of dealing with work pressure is particularly important.

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CORRELATION BETWEEN MENTAL HEALTH, WORK PRESSURE AND JOB BURNOUT OF MUSIC TEACHERS ₅₄₄

For the relationship between mental health and job burnout of teachers, scholars from various countries have carried out a large number of investigations and experimental analysis, and they believe that the phenomenon of job burnout of practitioners have an adverse impact on the physical and mental health of individuals. If the job burnout phenomenon can not be dealt with effectively, its long-term development and accumulation will result in instability in the individual's mental status and psychological regulation, thereby leading to unstable individual emotions, which will ultimately threaten the individual's physical and mental health and form a mental health crisis. In short, the unlimited accumulation of job burnout will have serious harmful effects on the individual's career development and physical and mental health, and the bad mental and physical conditions will adversely affect the individual's degree of job burnout, affecting their personal development and daily life.

In addition, the existing researches are still unclear about the relationship between mental health, work pressure and job burnout of teaching practitioners, and there are still many deficiencies. Combined with the occupational stress problem of music teaching practitioners in the society, this paper carries out studies on the correlation between the mental health, work pressure, and job burnout of music teachers.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MENTAL HEALTH, WORK PRESSURE AND JOB BURNOUT OF MUSIC TEACHERS

Survey methods and research ideas

In this paper, the random sampling method is adopted, several music teachers in the primary and secondary schools in a certain city are selected as the respondents, whose basic information is shown in Table 1. A total of 500 questionnaires were distributed and 453 copies were returned, the recovery rate was 90.6%, of which 436 were valid questionnaires and the effective rate was 96.2%. According to Table 1, it can be seen that the number of female respondents in the survey is more than that of male respondents, and the proportion is close to 7:3. In terms of the age, young teachers occupy

a larger proportion, with the increase of the age, the number of respondents is decreasing; In terms of marital status, the number of married teachers is more than the number of unmarried teachers; in terms of education level, the number of teachers with a bachelor degree is the largest.

Table 1.

Basic information of respondents

Variable Category Number Percentage/%

Gender Male 147 29.4%

Female 353 70.6%

Age

20-34 296 59.2%

35-49 132 26.4%

≥50 72 14.4%

Marital status

Married 376 75.2%

Unmarried 124 24.8%

Education level

Below bachelor

degree

85 17.0%

Bachelor degree or above

415 83.0%

The questionnaires were designed to be divided into work pressure questionnaire, mental health questionnaire and job burnout questionnaire. The work pressure questionnaire includes 3 factors, 34 questions, and adopts the 5-point scoring method, great pressure was marked as 5 points, no pressure was marked as 1 point. The higher the score, the greater the pressure of the respondents. The job burnout questionnaire is based on three factors: emotional exhaustion, low sense of accomplishment, and depersonalization, the 5-point scoring method was adopted as well, and higher score indicates higher degree of job burnout. The mental health questionnaire is based on the three factors of effectiveness, toughness, and optimism, it also uses the 5-point scoring method, and higher score indicates better mental health status.

Correlation between mental health, work pressure and job burnout

The survey results were subject to correlation analysis using the deviation test and the significance test of difference, the gender difference test is shown in Table 2 and Figure 1 (the abscissa numbers in the figure correspond to the variables in the table).

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Table 2.

Results of gender factor difference test

Factor Variable Man Woman p

Working pressure

1 Student factor 2.97 2.85 0.001

2 Test Pressure 3.61 3.13 0.002

3 Career expectations 3.52 3.41 0.063

Job burnout

4 Emotional exhaustion 3.08 2.65 0.092

5 Low sense of achievement 3.10 2.98 0.003

6 Depersonalization 2.73 2.32 0.005

Mental health

7 Effectiveness 4.76 4.73 0.063

8 Toughness 3.97 4.13 0.072

9 Optimism 4.56 4.84 0.006

Figure 1

.

Results of gender factor difference

test

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

0 1 2 3 4 5

Mean

value of sco

re

Man Woman

According to the data in the table, in terms of work pressure, gender is of statistical significance in the test pressure and the student factors; in terms of job burnout, gender is of statistical significance in the low sense of achievement and the depersonalization factors; in terms of mental health, gender is of statistical significance in the optimism factor. On the whole, men face greater work pressure than women, which has a lot to do with the job status

of men in the family. Men are the pillars of the family, the income mainly depends on men, so men's work pressure is generally greater than women's work pressure. Men's job burnout is generally higher than women, and women are more optimistic in the teaching process.

The results of the difference test of age factor are shown in Table 3 and Figure 2. It can be seen from the table that the age is of statistical significance in all factors of the work pressure, the p values are all less than 0.05; in terms of job burnout, the emotional exhaustion has no statistical significance, p>0.05, the other two factors are statistically significant. In terms of mental health, all factors are statistically significant, and all p values are less than 0.05. It can be seen from Figure 2 that music teachers of different ages show different degrees of job burnout and work pressure. Older teachers have greater work pressure; with the increase of the age, the music teachers’ job burnout get more obvious, but their mental health level increases with the age, and they become more and more optimistic, indicating that with the increase of age, the music teachers’ experience increases, the family is stable, their work enthusiasm is not high, but they can keep a good living attitude.

Table 3.

Results of age difference test

Factor Variable 20-34 35-49 ≥ 50 p

Working pressure

1 Student factor 2.74 3.03 3.41 0.008

2 Test Pressure 3.21 3.34 3.41 0.006

3 Career expectations 3.22 3.31 3.37 0.033

Job burnout

4 Emotional exhaustion 3.08 3.17 3.23 0.052

5 Low sense of achievement 2.31 2.23 2.16 0.008

6 Depersonalization 2.16 2.24 2.32 0.003

Mental health

7 Effectiveness 4.42 4.53 4.68 0.003

8 Toughness 3.95 4.03 4.21 0.042

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CORRELATION BETWEEN MENTAL HEALTH, WORK PRESSURE AND JOB BURNOUT OF MUSIC TEACHERS ₅₄₆

Table 4.

Results of the marriage factor difference test

Factor Variable Unmarried Married p

Working pressure

2 Test Pressure 3.15 3.43 0.007

Job burnout

Mental health

8 Toughness 3.93 4.06 0.083

9 Optimism 4.59 4.73 0.027

Figure 2

.

Results of age difference test

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0

1 2 3 4 5

Mean va

lue of scor

e

20-34 35-49 ≥50

The results of the marriage difference test are shown in Table 4 and Figure 3. It can be seen from the table that in terms of work pressure, all factors of marital status are statistically significant, p<0.05; in terms of job burnout, no statistical significance is found, p>0.05; in terms of mental health, the effectiveness and optimism factors are statistically significant, and the toughness factor does not show statistical significance. It can be seen from the figure that the work pressure of married music teachers is generally greater than that of unmarried teachers, and the job burnout of married music teachers is lower than that of unmarried teachers. The mental health status of married and unmarried teachers is similar.

The results of the education level difference

test are shown in Table 5 and Figure 4. It can be seen from Table 5 that, in terms of work pressure, all factors do not present statistical significance, p>0.05; in terms of job burnout, the influence of education level has statistical significance, all p values are less than 0.05; in addition, from the perspective of mental health, the toughness and optimism factors in the education level both show statistical significance, while the effectiveness factor does not show statistical significance. As can be seen from Figure 4, the higher the education level of the music teachers, the greater the work pressure, but they also show job burnout more obviously, and their mental health level is lower.

Figure 3

.

Results of the marriage factor

difference test

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

0 1 2 3 4 5

Mean

value of sco

re

Unmarried Married

Table 5.

The difference test of education level factors

Factor Variable Below bachelor degree Bachelor degree or above p

Working pressure

2 Test Pressure 3.04 3.13 0.087

Job burnout

Mental health

8 Toughness 4.63 4.51 0.023

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Figure 4

.

Results of the difference test of education level factors

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

0 1 2 3 4 5

Mean

value of sco

re

Below bachelor degree Bachelor degree or above

Figure 5

.

Relationship model of mental health, work pressure and job burnout

Working pressure

Job burnout Mental health

Student factor Test pressure Career expectations

Emotional exhaustion

Low sense of

achievement Effectiveness Toughness Optimism

The relationship model of mental health, work pressure and job burnout is shown in Figure 5. From the correlation analysis of related factors, we can see that the music teachers’ work pressure is negatively correlated with the mental health. Mental health has a positive effect, it can influence the perception of music teachers, and prevent the discomfort caused by work pressure; music teachers’ job burnout is negatively correlated with the mental health, indicating that positive mental health factors may play a role in alleviating job burnout.

Music teachers are not only responsible for teaching, more importantly, they educate people, and the teacher profession has always been regarded as a dedication profession. The society is more demanding on teachers and their work pressure is getting higher, which makes music teacher become an occupation with severer job burnout. In terms of the measures for alleviating the job burnout of the teacher

profession, on the one hand, it should rely on policy changes, such as reducing the workload of teachers, reducing their work hours, increasing the income of teachers and improving their social status. On the other hand, give psychological counseling to music teachers, improve their positive psychological quality, and stimulate their working enthusiasm, so as to achieve the purpose of alleviating the job burnout of music teachers.

CONCLUSIONS

In this paper, based on the mental health, work pressure and job burnout of music teachers, through the investigation and analysis of the mental health, work pressure and job burnout situations of teachers, this paper carried out studies on the correlation between the three, and drew the following conclusions:

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CORRELATION BETWEEN MENTAL HEALTH, WORK PRESSURE AND JOB BURNOUT OF MUSIC TEACHERS ₅₄₈

For music teachers, men's work pressure is generally greater than women’s work pressure,

men’s job burnout is generally higher than

women’s job burnout, and women are more optimistic during the teaching process; with the increase of age, the music teachers’ job burnout becomes more obvious, but as their mental health level is increasing with the age, they become more optimistic.

The work pressure of married music teachers is generally greater than that of unmarried teachers, and the job burnout of married music teachers is lower than that of unmarried teachers. The mental health status of married and unmarried teachers is similar; the higher the education level of music teachers, the greater the work pressure, meanwhile their job burnout is more obvious, and their mental health status is worse.

The work pressure of music teachers is positively correlated with job burnout; work pressure is negatively correlated with mental health factors, and mental health has a positive effect, it can affect the perception of music teachers and prevent discomfort caused by work pressure.

Music teachers’ job burnout is negatively correlated with mental health factors, indicating that positive mental health factors may play a certain role in relieving job burnout.

Acknowledgement

1. The 2018 Annual Project of the provincial social science research," Music performance and life evolution research of Islam"FJ2018JDZ020.

2.National Social Science Fund - Arts Youth Project in 2014-The study of the mind in Sergei Rachmaninoff 2014CD03198-Licensed:14CD112.

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