Job demands and resources of vocational education teachers: the role of resilience and social support in well-being, job satisfaction, and burnout

Abstract Background In their daily working lives, teachers are confronted with numerous job demands, including conflicts with individual colleagues or the school management, learners with high heterogeneity or a lack of motivation, and technical issues. Dealing with these job demands can have varied effects, such as increased burnout rates, decreased well-being, and less job satisfaction. Especially in vocational education, the personal effects of teachers’ job demands remain poorly understood. Therefore, this study aimed to understand the effects of teachers’ job demands on their mental health and how the available resources might influence this relationship. Methods The job demands–resources model was used to better understand the relationships between teachers’ job demands and their mental health as well as the role of teachers’ resources. This study draws on a dataset of N = 1470 vocational education teachers in [state], Germany. Cross-sectional data were collected using an online questionnaire in which the participating teachers answered questions about their perceptions of their job demands, their private and job resources, and the mental health-related outcomes of well-being, job satisfaction, and burnout. A regression and moderation analysis was employed to analyze the relationship between perceived job demands and the three mental health-related outcomes, as well as how the resources influenced this relationship. Results The results show that task scope and complexity are the most prevailing demands. Furthermore, the perception of job demands was negatively related to teachers’ well-being and job satisfaction and positively related to burnout. Regarding the resources, resilience was identified as the only resource moderating the impact of job demands on burnout significantly, which indicates that higher resilience and is associated with lower burnout despite the presence of job demands. Conclusion Teacher resilience was found beneficial for teachers to handle the demands they face at work. Policymakers should generally aim to reduce job demands for teachers, especially regarding task scope and complexity. Our data suggests that teachers might increase their resistance to job demands by strengthening their resilience. Resilience interventions during teacher training could be a way of supporting them.