Academic Self-Concept Correlates of Potential Burnout in a Sample of First-Semester Elementary-School Practice Teachers: A Concurrent Validity Study

Abstract

For a sample of 109 graduate students beginning their first semester of practice teaching at the elementary-school level the concurrent validity of each of five subscales of the measure of academic self-concept entitled Dimensions of Self-Concept (DOSC)-Level of Aspiration, Anxiety, Academic Interest and Satisfaction, Leadership and Initiative, and Identification versus Alienation-was found relative to each of three criterion scales of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) scored for both frequency and intensity of response: (a) Emotional Exhaustion, (b) Depersonalization, and (c) Personal Accomplishment. It was concluded that for the most part the subscales of the DOSC demonstrated promising concurrent validity relative to the criterion measures afforded by the MBI. Substantial evidence was present that those student teachers who exhibited scores on the DOSC indicative of a positive or facilitative academic self-concept tended to register scores on the MBI associated with minimal tendency toward burnout behaviors.