The effects of self-efficacy and resilience on stress, burnout, and turnover intentions among early career education professionals

Personnel shortage is a significant and on-going concern in the field of education. Considering the on-going problem of teacher shortages, it is critically important to stem the tide of attrition among teachers and school psychologists, especially those in the first five years of their careers. Some early career professionals have high levels of personal resources, which help to sustain them in the face of career stress. There are others who need more supports to gain the self-efficacy and resilience needed to successfully traverse the early career stresses and challenges they face. It was the purpose of this study to identify quantitative and qualitative factors both within the person and within the context that can be marshalled to provide the support needed for the early career professionals struggling to determine their continuance in the field. This study provided data to measure personal factors by using quantitative online surveys to assess the status of stress, burnout, self-efficacy, resilience, and turnover intention among early career educators. In addition, it added qualitative data gathered through semi-structured interviews conducted through an online platform to gain insight into the lived experiences of early career professionals as they navigate their first years in the profession and what supports they feel will help them mitigate negative outcomes related to the stress that is inherent in the education profession. This study demonstrated that stress alone does not have a significant impact on turnover intentions, but when stress leads to burnout, there is a significant impact on turnover intentions. Early career school psychologists and early career teachers did not differ significantly on their levels of stress and burnout, which were in the moderate to high range for both groups, but the two groups differed significantly on their turnover intentions. The study also found that resilience, which was lower than the general population norm among the study participants, has a positive impact on reducing levels of burnout among early career educators who are engaged in stressful careers, while levels of self-efficacy have little impact. The study also promoted understanding of the supports that are needed for these early career professionals.