Toward a Reappraisal of the Bonds between Emotional Intelligence and Burnout

Abstract

Though several researchers have thus far attempted to address the viable relationship between EI and burnout, it seems that few have approached the notion of burnout by considering the influence of teachers’ coping resources such as EI especially in an EFL context. Thus, in an attempt to bridge this gap, the present study sought to explore the association between burnout and EI in a sample of 75 high school EFL teachers in West Azerbaijan. Successive to the administration of Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey (Maslach, Jackson, & Leiter, 1996) and Bar-On’s EQ-i (1997a, b), the data were analyzed through running Pearson Product-Moment Correlations, Regression analyses and Independent-Samples t-tests. The findings showed that EI was reversely correlated with burnout, and it could be a potent predictor of burnout. Also, in line with the gained upshots age and teaching experience were positively correlated with EI and reversely correlated with teacher burnout. Finally, significant differences among teachers’ burnout (but not their EI) were found with respect to gender.