Iranian EFL Teachers’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs and Causal Attributions: Effects on Burnout and Psychological Adjustment

Iranian EFL Teachers’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs and Causal Attributions: Effects on Burnout and Psychological Adjustment

Teaching is a profession characterized by high levels of burnout and emotional exhaustion (Maslach Jackson, 1981). Research studies (e.g., Kyriacou Kunc, 2007) have evidenced that burnout is a major cause of discouraging teacher attrition rates in many countries. Besides, they indicate that both lowquality educational infrastructure and psychological variables underlie adjustment, burnout, and attrition in teaching profession. As a complement to studies that have examined the impacts of structural factors on teachers’ burnout, the current study draws on two theories to investigate the effects of Iranian EFL instructors’ self-efficacy beliefs and causal attributions for perceived success or failure in teaching profession on their burnout and psychological well-being. The first theory is Bandura’s (1977) social cognitive theory, which considers perceived self-efficacy, personal judgment of one’s capabilities to organize and execute courses of action to attain designated goals a strong predictor of human motivation. The second theory is Weiner’s (1985) attribution theory, which relates three underlying characteristics of any causal attribution to subsequent adjustment and behavior. To achieve the aims of the study, we asked 237 Iranian EFL teachers to respond to an online self-report questionnaire consisting of three sections: sense of self-efficacy scale, developed by Moran and Woolfolk Hoy (2001), a modified version of the causal dimension scale (CDS-II), developed by McAuley, Duncan, and Russell (1992), and Maslach Burnout Inventory, validated by Maslach, Jackson, and Leiter (1996). Pearson correlation was used to explore the relationship between predictor and dependent variables; and a multiple mediation analysis was conducted using PROCESS macro to discover if causal attributions were mediators of self-efficacy effects. Results indicated that self-efficacy and attributions independently predicted teachers burnout and psychological adjustment. This finding indicates that teachers’ attribution for success or failure is not simply a by-product of their self-efficacy beliefs, but rather an independent contributor to adjustment and job satisfaction. Results further demonstrated that positive changes in well-being and persistence arising from higher self-efficacy for student engagement are not merely due to personally controllable attributions for teachers’ perceived success or failure. Implications for professional development and intervention programs are discussed.

Teaching is a profession characterized by high levels of burnout and emotional exhaustion (Maslach Jackson, 1981). Research studies (e.g., Kyriacou Kunc, 2007) have evidenced that burnout is a major cause of discouraging teacher attrition rates in many countries. Besides, they indicate that both lowquality educational infrastructure and psychological variables underlie adjustment, burnout, and attrition in teaching profession. As a complement to studies that have examined the impacts of structural factors on teachers’ burnout, the current study draws on two theories to investigate the effects of Iranian EFL instructors’ self-efficacy beliefs and causal attributions for perceived success or failure in teaching profession on their burnout and psychological well-being. The first theory is Bandura’s (1977) social cognitive theory, which considers perceived self-efficacy, personal judgment of one’s capabilities to organize and execute courses of action to attain designated goals a strong predictor of human motivation. The second theory is Weiner’s (1985) attribution theory, which relates three underlying characteristics of any causal attribution to subsequent adjustment and behavior. To achieve the aims of the study, we asked 237 Iranian EFL teachers to respond to an online self-report questionnaire consisting of three sections: sense of self-efficacy scale, developed by Moran and Woolfolk Hoy (2001), a modified version of the causal dimension scale (CDS-II), developed by McAuley, Duncan, and Russell (1992), and Maslach Burnout Inventory, validated by Maslach, Jackson, and Leiter (1996). Pearson correlation was used to explore the relationship between predictor and dependent variables; and a multiple mediation analysis was conducted using PROCESS macro to discover if causal attributions were mediators of self-efficacy effects. Results indicated that self-efficacy and attributions independently predicted teachers burnout and psychological adjustment. This finding indicates that teachers’ attribution for success or failure is not simply a by-product of their self-efficacy beliefs, but rather an independent contributor to adjustment and job satisfaction. Results further demonstrated that positive changes in well-being and persistence arising from higher self-efficacy for student engagement are not merely due to personally controllable attributions for teachers’ perceived success or failure. Implications for professional development and intervention programs are discussed.