Two sides of the same coin? The role of rumination and reflection in elementary school teachers' classroom stress and burnout

• Published in: Teaching and teacher education 2015-04, Vol.47, p.131-141
• Main Authors: Košir, Katja, Tement, Sara, Licardo, Marta, Habe, Katarina
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Burnout; Classroom stress; Job characteristics; Reflection; Rumination; Teachers
• ISSN: 0742-051X; 1879-2480
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tate.2015.01.006

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of rumination and reflection in teachers' classroom stress and burnout, thereby assessing their predictive value per se and their role as moderators between teacher reported job characteristics and stress and burnout. 439 elementary school teachers participated in the study. Dispositional characteristics explained additional variance in teachers' stress and burnout beyond job characteristics. Rumination was a significant predictor of both stress and burnout, whereas reflection was not. However, reflection moderated the relation between job characteristics and stress. These results highlight the importance of simultaneously investigating environmental and dispositional characteristics of teachers' strain. •The role of rumination and reflection in predicting teachers' stress and burnout was examined.•Rumination was a direct positive predictor of stress and burnout.•Reflection worked as a moderator in the relation between job characteristics and classroom stress.•Workload and autonomy predicted stress and burnout after controlling for dispositional factors.