Página 1 de 1
Duazary / Vol. 20, No. 3 – 2023 / 197 - 203
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21676/2389783X.5446
Gina Mahecha-Naranjo1, Leandro Álvarez-Alucema2, Yelis Campo-Torregrosa3, Tirza Caballero-Olivares4, Rubén López-Sepúlveda5
1. Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia. Santa Marta, Colombia. Correo: gina.mahecha@und.edu.co - https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5672-4513
2. Universidad del Magdalena. Santa Marta, Colombia. Correo: lalvarez@unimagdalena.edu.co - https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5900-2647
3. Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia. Santa Marta, Colombia. Correo: yelis.campo@unad.edu.co - https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5972-1350
4. Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia. Santa Marta, Colombia. Correo: tirza.caballero@unad.edu.co - https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5413-3042
5. Universidad del Magdalena. Santa Marta, Colombia. Correo: rlopez@unimagdalena.edu.co - https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5413-9356
How to cite this article: Mahecha-Naranjo G, Álvarez-Alucema L, Campo-Torregrosa Y, Caballero-Olivares T, López-Sepúlveda R. Caracterización del síndrome del agotamiento psicológico en profesores universitarios de América Latina: una revisión bibliográfica. Duazary. 2023;20(3):200-206. https://doi.org/10.21676/2389783X.5446
Received on August 31, 2023
Accepted on October 08, 2023
Posted online October 10, 2023
Introduction: Teaching requires dedication, time, and mental work due to the diversity of tasks that must be carried out, which can generate burnout (psychological exhaustion). However, reviews of the characteristics of burnout in Latin American university professors still need to be discovered. Objective: To characterize psychological exhaustion in university professors in Latin America. Method: A bibliographic review of original studies was conducted from different sources in Spanish, English, and Portuguese with the keywords work stress, burnout, psychological exhaustion, teaching, and university professors. The frequencies of the characteristics of the dimensions of psychological exhaustion were described. Results: Eleven investigations showed that depersonalization mainly manifests burnout (up to 90%). Emotional exhaustion and low personal fulfillment reached up to 82%. Conclusions: Burnout among university professors manifests mainly with depersonalization. New systematic reviews should summarize the variables associated with psychological exhaustion in Latin American university professors.
Introducción: la labor docente le exige dedicación, tiempo y trabajo mental por la multiplicidad de tareas que debe desarrollar que pueden generar agotamiento psicológico (burnout). Sin embargo, se desconocen revisiones de las características del agotamiento psicológico en profesores universitarios latinoamericanos. Objetivo: caracterizar el agotamiento psicológico en profesores universitarios de América Latina. Método: se condujo una revisión bibliográfica de estudios originales en diferentes fuentes en español, inglés y portugués con las palabras clave: estrés laboral, ‘burnout’, agotamiento psicológico, docencia y profesores universitarios. Se describieron las frecuencias de las características de las dimensiones del agotamiento psicológico. Resultados: se incluyeron 11 investigaciones que mostraron que el agotamiento psicológico se manifiesta principalmente por despersonalización (hasta 90%). El agotamiento emocional y la baja realización personal alcanzaron hasta el 82%. Conclusiones: el agotamiento psicológico se profesores universitarios se manifiesta principalmente con despersonalización. Nuevas revisiones sistemáticas deben resumir las variables asociadas a agotamiento psicológico en profesores universitarios latinoamericanos.
Teaching requires dedication, time, and mental work due to the multiplicity of tasks that stress1. Stress among teachers impairs work performance and absenteeism associated with physical and mental exhaustion, including depressive disorders, and can also be configured as psychological exhaustion (burnout)2.
It has been shown that teachers, in their desire to respond to the requirements of the educational environment, whether due to the demands of modernity, information and communication technologies (ICT), speed and quantity, and information, their work performance could be better. Absenteeism and depression have increased in the union due to physical and mental exhaustion2.
Psychological exhaustion in university professors can arise from the discrepancy between the individual ideals of the educator that he/she seeks to transcend by providing suitable training to his/her students and the reality of daily occupational life3. Psychological exhaustion is a state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion that results from work and emotional overload4,5. Psychological exhaustion is the response to chronic stressors characterized by emotional overload, depersonalization, and disinterest in the professional role6.
The demands and pressures of work can trigger work stress in people. The effects caused by work stress are usually multidimensional; the extraordinary effort of the body affects physical health7.
Teachers constantly face new demands, such as making periodic and innovative changes in their teaching, making decisions, and updating themselves based on each technological advance8. This can manifest as emotional exhaustion, depersonalization9, the feeling that work is endless, physical symptoms, symptoms of depression or anxiety, and decreased productivity10-12. However, the strategies to positively confront the challenges13.
Previous reviews have shown the frequency of psychological exhaustion in teachers of basic training institutions2 and university teachers3. However, the dimensions of psychological exhaustion were omitted, especially those proposed by Maslach6. Differentiating psychological exhaustion in Latin American university teachers could help understand how social and cultural aspects shape the manifestations of distress8.
The objective of this review was to characterize psychological exhaustion in university professors in Latin America.
A systematic review was designed to identify relevant studies.
Studies published between 2015 and 2019, written in Spanish, English, or Portuguese, from research that reported the dimensions of psychological exhaustion in databases CUIDEN, Dialnet, Proquest, and Science Direct were included. The following keywords were used: Psychological exhaustion, work stress, burnout, burnout syndrome, teaching, and university professors. Boolean operators such as AND, NOT, and OR were used in different combinations.
An Excel matrix was designed that included the article's name, author, year of publication, country, sample, instruments, and results.
Forty-four studies were found. Thirty-one documents were excluded because they were repeated. Thirteen research results were reviewed. The studies were conducted in Mexico, Colombia, and Ecuador, with five, four, and three studies, respectively14-24. However, it was necessary to exclude one of them. After all, it did not report frequency but rather the mean and standard deviation of the scores25 and another because it omitted the dimensions of psychological exhaustion26.
The 12 studies included the participation of 770 teachers aged between 25 and 65 years; 70% of the sample were men, married, or in a common law union.
The academic training of the teachers subject to the study is high; 23% of them were doctors, 65% had master's degrees, and 12% were specialists. 47%, equivalent to 465 teachers, had job stability with indefinite-term contracts, 14% were part-time teachers, and 39% had hourly contracts. Likewise, their seniority in the institutions studied ranged between one and 42 years.
The psychometric instruments were multiple; However, dimensions of the different versions of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) followed: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment. These dimensions include subcategories such as professional burnout, demotivation, professional satisfaction, anxiety and insomnia, depression, cynical and pessimistic attitudes towards students, noise, pollution of the physical environment, sociocultural consumption of coffee and tobacco, use of alcohol and other drugs, absenteeism, decrease in productivity and quality, elements that generate various information as they are regulatory mechanisms of alterations and conflicts, that is, stressors or "motivators," which could be considered triggers for the appearance of psychological exhaustion (Table 1).
In the present review, it is observed that in university professors, between 2% and 82% present emotional exhaustion, 14% and 82% have low personal fulfillment, 6% and 94% depersonalization.
Previous reviews have addressed other populations and have not broadly characterized psychological exhaustion in teachers2,3. Tabares-Díaz et al2 found that between 0.7% and 43.4% of teachers, mainly from primary schools, were positive in some of the dimensions of the MBI in 53 studies reviewed. Likewise, Carranco et al3 reviewed 29 articles in which they mixed primary, secondary, and university education teachers without specifying the frequencies observed in the dimensions of psychological exhaustion.
Psychological exhaustion is the individual's reaction to daily work demands and pressures that can be perceived as stressors and contribute to work stress27-32. In the present investigation, it was found that 53% of the teachers presented symptoms of psychological exhaustion; only medical teachers who participated in the research by Islas et al16 did not report psychological exhaustion.
Depersonalization appears as a dysfunctional way of coping with teacher stress. The teacher chooses to interpose a kind of barrier to prevent people who benefit from his work, according to his perception, from affecting him with possible negative comments15. Likewise, Luna et al14, Romero et al17, Castro et al22, and Ruiz et al23 observed that this is more frequent after many years in the same activity.
For its part, low personal achievement or negative recognition can be related to job instability33. This was a predictive element of high work stress in teachers in several studies included in this research14,17,22.
The emotional symptoms of psychological exhaustion, especially low self-esteem and anxiety, cause them to distance themselves from other people, who are generally those who need their service, and show unempathetic behavior34. Furthermore, these emotional alterations negatively affect cognitive functions such as memorizing data, abstract reasoning, and other judgments19,35. These emotional symptoms, added to psychosocial factors (ambiguity in tasks, need to take work home, social support at work, work-family interference), increase the risk of developing depression36,37. This is a spiral phenomenon in which the feeling of failure, helplessness, and professional frustration related to psychological exhaustion is added to poor self-esteem and negative thoughts typical of a depressive episode39-45.
It is necessary to take measures to reduce psychological exhaustion in university teachers. A healthy lifestyle and training in coping techniques (positive and negative appraisal, threat minimization, psychological well-being, and concentration on the problem) should be promoted to reduce psychological exhaustion in academics18. Likewise, identify protective factors in each population46-50.
This review had the novelty of analyzing the dimensions of psychological exhaustion exclusively in university teachers. This aspect had been omitted in previous reviews2,3. However, it has the limitation that the measurement of psychological exhaustion was done with different instruments, some of doubtful validity and reliability. This makes comparison between studies difficult.
Psychological exhaustion in university professors is mainly characterized by depersonalization. New systematic reviews should summarize the variables associated with psychological exhaustion in Latin American university professors.
The authors declare that they do not present any conflict of interest.
First author: Original idea, writing, and bibliographic search.
Second author: Fieldwork and writing.
Third author: Bibliographic search and writing.
Fourth author: Writing and verification of bibliographic search.
Fifth author: Writing and adjustment of citation standards.