Professional burnout in school psychology : impact of changing practices

Abstract

The present study investigated what impact a shift to a Response-to-Intervention (RtI) model might have on reported burnout levels of school psychologists. The role of the school psychologist has long been envisioned as one of nothing but testing and paperwork. With recent legislation, RtI has become a mandated option to replacing the traditional discrepancy model. The present study investigates what impact the extent to which schools are implementing RtI-type practices, the individual school psychologists knowledge of and attitudes towards RtI, and the perceived discrepancy between the school psychologists knowledge and attitudes and those of their principals has on the three factors of burnout as conceptualized by Maslach and Jackson (1986): emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment. Results of the present study yielded a small relationship between the discrepancy with the principal on RtI and emotional exhaustion, suggesting those who do not see eye to eye with their principal will experience more emotional exhaustion. Results also yielded a small to moderate relationship between a school psychologists own knowledge of and attitudes towards RtI and the extent to which their building was implementing RtI with personal accomplishment, suggesting that moving towards RtI practices will lead to more feelings of personal accomplishment.