Autonomy and career management skills in the context of lifelong learning : cognitive coping strategies of the teachers and effects in work burnout and work engagement

Abstract

The aim of this work is analysing cognitive coping strategies used by a sample of 385 teachers from Madrid (Spain) to face three different stressful situations: role conflict and role ambiguity, students challenging behaviours and work overload. Moreover, it has been studied the relationships between those personal coping resources and two teachers´ well-being measures: work burnout and work engagement. The assessment was carried out through Brief COPE and another items designed ad hoc. The MBI was used as a burnout measurement and the UWES assessed work engagement. Results show that cognitive strategies more frequently used by teachers hardly vary along the three stressful situations. Some examples of the strategies more frequently used are: “I think about one or more specific and realistic objectives about this situation”, “I consider as many solutions as possible to cope with this situation”. They have in common that they pursue an active solution for the problem. Beside, these strategies are negative and significantly correlated to burnout and positively to engagement. In conclusion, it is important that school counsellors promote this kind of cognitive skills among teachers in the context of lifelong learning because they can be factors that protect from burnout and increase teachers´ well-being.