Examination of the relationship between social media addiction symptom severity and occupational burnout and depressive symptom severity among special education teachers working in the Ministry of National Education

This research was conducted to examine the relationship between social media addiction symptom severity, professional burnout symptoms, and depressive symptoms among special education teachers working in the Ministry of National Education. In addition, whether there is a significant difference in terms of sociodemographic characteristics was investigated. The relational screening model, one of the quantitative research methods, was used in the research. Approximately 300 special education teachers working in the districts of Avcılar, Esenyurt, and Beylikdüzü in Istanbul, selected through convenience sampling, constituted the sample of this study. In addition to sociodemographic data, data were obtained via the Google Form using the Social Media Addiction Adult Form, Maslach Burnout Inventory, and Beck Depression Inventory in the research. Descriptive statistics, independent samples t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for independent groups, and finally Pearson Correlation (Two-tailed) analysis from correlation tests were applied. Independent samples t-test was conducted for the variables of gender and education status. One-way ANOVA was conducted for the variables of age range, duration of social media usage, and income status. Tukey multiple comparison tests were used to determine intergroup differences. Finally, Pearson Correlation (Two-tailed) analysis was conducted to determine the relationships between SMB, MBT, and BD. As a result of the data analysis, it was found that the social media addiction levels of male participants were significantly higher than those of female participants, participants' social media addiction levels were similar according to education level, susceptibility to social media addiction increased as age decreased, social media addiction symptoms significantly increased as social media usage time increased, and social media addiction symptoms intensified as income level increased. A positive low relationship was found between the Social Media Addiction Scale's virtual communication and the Emotional Exhaustion subscale of the Maslach Burnout Inventory. A positive moderate significant relationship was observed between the virtual tolerance subscale of the SMB scale and the Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and Reduced Personal Accomplishment subscales of the MBI scale. A similar relationship is also observed between the BD scale and the virtual tolerance and virtual communication subscales of the SMB scale. Furthermore, there is a similar level and direction of relationship between the BD scale and the Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and Reduced Personal Accomplishment subscales of the MBI scale. All these findings indicate that as participants' social media addiction levels and professional burnout levels increase, their levels of depression will also increase.