Date
4-2019
Department
School of Education
Degree
Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership (EdD)
Chair
Rebecca Lunde
Keywords
School Psychologists, Burnout, Job Satisfaction
Disciplines
Education | Educational Leadership | Student Counseling and Personnel Services
Recommended Citation
Donahue, Carla, "A Correlational Study of the Demographic and Job Factors Related to Job Satisfaction and Burnout Among School Psychologists" (2019). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 2076.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/2076
Abstract
School psychologists are uniquely trained to provide a variety of services within a school setting. Because of the diversity in job responsibilities and the growing expectations of school psychologists across different settings, low rates of job satisfaction and high rates of burnout are contributing to school psychologists leaving the profession, and fewer students enrolling in school psychology programs. The shortage of school psychologists exacerbates the problems, with low job satisfaction and high rates of burnout as practicing school psychologists often serve more students and schools than is recommended by the National Association of School Psychologists. Studies of job satisfaction and burnout among school psychologists are outdated, and many studies draw participants from sample populations of school psychologists affiliated with state or national professional organizations. Because of the changing role of school psychologists and the limited sample populations studied, results of previous studies may not be generalizable to contemporary school psychologists. This study examines the demographic and job-related factors that affect job satisfaction and burnout among school psychologists drawn from a national sample of school psychologists accessed through social media networking groups. Scores from the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI) and Job Satisfaction Scales (JSS) represent the criterion variables and 17 demographic and job-related factors represent the predictor variables in this correlational study. Two hierarchical regression analyses were used to determine which predictor variable(s) most significantly affected job satisfaction and which predictor variable(s) most significantly affected burnout among school psychologists. Overall, the results of the first hierarchical regression analysis show that the addition of all 17 variables increases predictability of OLBI total scores, though the change is not statistically significant (R2 change = .000, F(1, 121) = .024, p = .88). Results of the second hierarchical regression analysis shows that the largest R2 change is observed with the addition of all 17 variables of interest, though the increase is not statistically significant, R2 change =.000, F(1,121) = .03, p = .85.
