Teacher Burnout and Psychological Resources: A Cross-Sectional Study and Implications for Sustainable Education Management

The achievement of sustainable development goals and the advancement of energy literacy place complex professional demands on teachers, including sustained engagement, interdisciplinary collaboration, and the implementation of transformative teaching practices. However, relatively little attention has been paid to teachers’ psychological well-being as a potentially relevant contextual condition for undertaking these tasks. This cross-sectional study examined the relationships between professional burnout, depressive symptoms, perceived meaning in life, and problematic Internet use among 1737 teachers from southern Poland. Burnout was assessed using the Burnout Clinical Subtypes Questionnaire (BCSQ-12), while meaning in life, depressive symptoms, and problematic Internet use were measured using the Purpose in Life Test (PIL), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and the Internet Addiction Diagnostic Questionnaire (IADQ), respectively. Depressive symptoms were positively associated with burnout, whereas perceived meaning in life was negatively associated with all burnout dimensions. Problematic Internet use showed a comparatively weak association with burnout. Sustainability orientation, energy literacy, and engagement in education for sustainable development were not measured; therefore, the study does not provide empirical evidence that the psychological variables examined affect sustainability-related teaching. Instead, the findings are discussed within a theoretical framework that considers teacher well-being to be a potentially relevant condition for sustained professional engagement. Future research should directly examine whether burnout, depressive symptoms, and meaning in life are associated with teachers’ readiness for and actual engagement in sustainability and energy literacy education.