scholarly journals Teachers of socially maladjusted children and youth. Occupational burnout – sense of self-efficacy – teachers’ life optimism. A comparative study

Author(s):  
Ewa Sygit-Kowalkowska
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-169
Author(s):  
Justyna Szrajda ◽  
Ewa Sygit-Kowalkowska ◽  
Magdalena Weber-Rajek ◽  
Malwina Tudorowska ◽  
Marcin Ziółkowski ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Representatives of helping professions who are working with socially maladjusted youths and children with developmental disorders are particularly exposed to occupational stress. The aim of the study was to evaluate mental and physical well-being, as well as their correlates and predictors in a group of employees working at youth educational centres and sociotherapy centres. Materials and Methods A total of 96 employees working at youth educational centres and sociotherapy centres took part in the study. The following psychometric tools were used: the Psychosocial Working Conditions Questionnaire, the Mini-COPE, the LOT-R, and the GSES. Results The results obtained indicate that people working in helping professions experience mental and physical health problems. Only 3% of the subjects declared they sleep all night. Over 40% and over 35% of the subjects estimate they suffer from low mood and irritation episodes, respectively, rather frequently or continually. Subjects with poorer mental health are more likely to use Helplessness, Avoidance behaviours, or Turning to religion to cope with stress. The strongest predictor of mental well-being is the sense of self-efficacy. Whereas, the strongest predictor of physical well-being is the ability to cope with stress by giving into the feeling of Helplessness.   Conclusions The study demonstrated poor mental and physical well-being of the subjects. A statistically significant correlation was found between sex and the level of mental and physical health. Employees working at youth educational centres and sociotherapy centres with better mental and physical well-being had a stronger sense of self-efficacy and a higher level of life optimism.


2018 ◽  
pp. 1-6

Aims and Scope: Perception of health related quality of life (QoL) may result from the complex interplay between the severity of the disease and the patient’s psyche. It the present study we assumed that anxiety and coping based on emotions may contribute to reduced QoL in patients with mild systolic heart failure (HF). Methods: We examined mainly males with systolic HF (almost all with ischemic etiology of HF, all classified in the NYHA class II, receiving standard pharmacological treatment). Each patient underwent a physical examination, routine laboratory tests and standard transthoracic echocardiography and completed psychological questionnaires assessing: coping styles, sense of self efficacy, acceptance of illness, optimism and the level of anxiety and QoL (by Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire). Results: Emotion-oriented coping was strongly positively related to an overall score reflecting QoL (r=0.37) as well as to both dimensions of QoL, with exceptionally high correlation with the emotional dimension (r=0.24 and r=0.62, respectively, all p<0.05). More reduced QoL (overall score as well as scores in both analysed dimensions) was significantly (all p<0.05) but weakly (r=-0.21, r=-0.20 and r=-0.26, respectively) related to lower acceptance of the illness. Higher level of anxiety was related to more reduced QoL (all p<0.05). Reduced QoL in emotional dimension was related to the tendency to avoidance-oriented coping (r=0.26, including also a sub style based on distraction, r=0.34) as well as to lower sense of self-efficacy (r=-0.20) and lower level of optimism (r=-0.20, all p<0.05). Conclusion: The results indicate that HF patients are psychologically diverse, which is not related to disease severity. However, QoL was related to emotion-oriented coping and anxiety. Psychological support for patients with HF should be focused on teaching adequate methods of coping and reducing anxiety.


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 263-270
Author(s):  
Kate Black ◽  
Russell Warhurst

This article responds to Stoten’s (2016) article in Management Teaching Review on the use of PebblePad+ (PP+) to support learning, teaching, and assessment. We examined the realities of efforts to engender curriculum change using PP+ on a large undergraduate thesis course within a U.K. business school. We analyzed 2,143 emails between the 123 supervising-faculty and the professors leading the course. Field notes supplemented these data. We have demonstrated that while 18 supervising-faculty asserted the value of the use of PP+ (14.6%), the majority of faculty (54.5%) expressed concerns about using this technology, with eight supervisors failing to use the technology at all. We propose that these latter reactions resulted from a lack of self-efficacy with technology, a perceived task–technology mismatch, and perhaps, most significant, a threatened sense-of-self as “expert” in the eyes of their students and peers. We offer three key recommendations for readers who are considering technology-mediated change.


2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen W. Tao ◽  
Alberta M. Gloria

Impostor phenomenon or “impostorism” refers to the experience of high-achieving individuals (particularly women) who, despite being successful, attribute their accomplishments to luck, and fear being exposed as frauds. In the current study, we examined the association between impostorism and graduate student self-efficacy, perceptions of the research-training environment, and attitudes toward academic persistence of 224 women completing a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-related doctoral degree. As hypothesized, participants who identified more strongly with impostor characteristics reported a lower sense of self-efficacy, more negative views of their academic context, and more pessimistic outlooks toward attaining their doctorate. However, results from a multiple mediation analysis revealed that women’s levels of self-efficacy and perceptions of their doctoral environment accounted for the effects of impostorism on their attitudes about academic persistence. Also, the relation between impostorism and persistence attitudes strengthened as numerical representation of women in a STEM program increased. Results illuminate the potential role STEM departments can have on students’ persistence by developing early opportunities for research collaborations and fostering an early sense of accomplishment. Parents and teachers might also draw from our findings to develop strategies to inoculate younger students from the insidious effects of gender-based stereotypes. Online slides for instructors who want to use this article for teaching are available on PWQ's website at http://journals.sagepub.com/page/pwq/suppl/index


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosa Román-Oyola ◽  
Verónica Figueroa-Feliciano ◽  
Yoliannie Torres-Martínez ◽  
Jorge Torres-Vélez ◽  
Keyshla Encarnación-Pizarro ◽  
...  

Background. Play serves as an essential medium for parent-child interaction; however, engaging children with ASD through play can be a challenge for parents.Purpose. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the perspectives of parents with children on the autism spectrum regarding play experiences and self-efficacy during play encounters.Method. Semistructured interviews were administered to 8 parents of children 3–7 years of age with ASD. The analysis was guided by the constant comparison method.Findings. Parental narratives denoted playful experiences reflecting components of Skard and Bundy’s model of playfulness. The facilitation of framing and suspension of reality were generally more challenging than facilitating intrinsic motivation and internal control. Participants associated self-efficacy during play with their perceived ability to interact with their child and with positive emotions experienced during play. Fathers generally derived a greater sense of self-efficacy from play encounters than mothers, and this was explained by differences in fathers’ and mothers’ motivations for playing. Mothers were motivated to play for outcome-oriented reasons (e.g., promote the child’s progress) whereas fathers’ motivations depicted greater emotional emphasis, reflecting a better match between motivation and perceived indicators of efficacy during play.Conclusion. The results suggest that a good match between motivation for playing and perceived indicators of efficacy during play is important for a parental sense of self-efficacy. Occupational therapists should utilize coaching strategies to increase parents’ understanding of play and playfulness and how they can affect a sense of parental self-efficacy.


Author(s):  
Nancy Akhavan ◽  
Nichole Walsh ◽  
Janeen Goree

This single case study is a qualitative inquiry into the cultivation of doctoral candidates and graduates on their efficacy as leaders in using inquiry as to approach problems of practice in daily work. The study examined a doctoral program in educational leadership at one large public university in California, USA. The case study methods included artifact analysis, an examination of field notes, and semi-structured one-on-one phone interviews. The data analysis of all sources revealed three themes related to participants’ leader self-efficacy in using scholarly inquiry on problems of practice in the field. Findings indicate that the participants grew in their leader self-efficacy, transformed, and confident in their sense of self as an educational scholar-practitioner to enact change. As a result of their experience in a Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED) program, graduate participants also highlight the focus on inquiry processes to solve problems of practice as vital to educational leadership. Conclusions highlight considerations for similar programs when evaluating how they prepare graduates to impact education beyond coursework. Further research should emphasize how programs are addressing problems of practice for social justice to impact educational leaders in the field upon program completion.


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