Investigating the link between teachers’ childhood trauma and student-related burnout: The mediating role of emotion dysregulation and emotional self-efficacy

Abstract Teachers are a risk group for developing burnout, especially student-related burnout. However, the associated risk factors have hardly been researched. Our cross-sectional study investigates the possible association between previous traumatic childhood experiences and student-related burnout risk and the possible mediating role of emotional self-efficacy and emotional dysregulation. Participants is Italian K-12 teachers (N = 1203; females: 88.1%; age: M= 46.93; SD = 10.22). Teachers completed an anonymous self-report questionnaire that included information about previous childhood traumatic experiences, emotional dysregulation, self-efficacy, and student-related burnout. The data show that teachers who report previous traumatic experiences tend to have a higher risk of student-related burnout. This relationship was also mediated by emotional dysregulation. Furthermore, emotional self-efficacy mediated the relationship between emotional dysregulation and student-related burnout, but not the relationship between a teacher's previous traumatic experiences in childhood and student-related burnout. Thus, our data seems to suggest that teachers with prior traumatic experiences are more likely to report a higher risk of student-related burnout and that measures of their ability to regulate emotions and feel effective in managing emotions contribute to their risk of reporting burnout associated with their relationship with students. Limitations, practical implications and future directions for research are described.