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Special education teacher (SET) burnout is a significant concern, especially for SETs serving students with emotional-behavioral disorders (EBD), as they tend to experience higher burnout than other teachers. Working conditions, especially social support, have the potential to ameliorate burnout, but prior research has not articulated the sources and types of social support that are most important. The authors conducted a longitudinal study, surveying 230 SETs serving students with EBD at three time points across one school year. Data revealed administrative support, adequacy of planning time, and autonomy in fall predicted emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment in winter and spring. Associations between working conditions and burnout components were partially mediated by SETs' perceptions of workload manageability. SET change in well-being due to COVID-19 during the early months of the pandemic was not associated with burnout. The authors discuss implications, limitations, and directions for future inquiry.

We examined changes in burnout across three timepoints in one school year, in a sample (N = 230) of special educators serving students with emotional-behavioral disorders, in 15 school districts selected through stratified random sampling at the national level. Emotional exhaustion decreased at each timepoint in the school year and personal accomplishment increased from fall to spring. Latent growth curve modeling did not produce latent trajectories of burnout among teachers; however, cross-lagged panel structure equation modeling revealed that emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment had both direct and indirect effects on depersonalization. Differences in burnout were significant by race/ethnicity but not by gender. Participants reported higher emotional exhaustion, lower depersonalization, and higher personal accomplishment than a national sample. We provide implications for researchers and practitioners.

Special education teacher (SET) burnout is a significant concern, especially for SETs serving students with emotional–behavioral disorders (EBD), as they tend to experience higher burnout than other teachers. Working conditions, especially social support, have the potential to ameliorate burnout, but prior research has not articulated the sources and types of social support that are most important. The authors conducted a longitudinal study, surveying 230 SETs serving students with EBD at three time points across one school year. Data revealed administrative support, adequacy of planning time, and autonomy in fall predicted emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment in winter and spring. Associations between working conditions and burnout components were partially mediated by SETs' perceptions of workload manageability. SET change in well-being due to COVID-19 during the early months of the pandemic was not associated with burnout. The authors discuss implications, limitations, and directions for future inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined changes in burnout across three timepoints in one school year, in a sample (N = 230) of special educators serving students with emotional-behavioral disorders, in 15 school districts selected through stratified random sampling at the national level. Emotional exhaustion decreased at each timepoint in the school year and personal accomplishment increased from fall to spring. Latent growth curve modeling did not produce latent trajectories of burnout among teachers; however, cross-lagged panel structure equation modeling revealed that emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment had both direct and indirect effects on depersonalization. Differences in burnout were significant by race/ethnicity but not by gender. Participants reported higher emotional exhaustion, lower depersonalization, and higher personal accomplishment than a national sample. We provide implications for researchers and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]