The relationship between career stress, burnout and positive future expectations: The example of pre-service physical education teachers

Introduction and Purpose: The aim of this study is to examine the career stress, burnout and positive future expectation levels of pre-service physical education teacher according to some variables and to determine the relationship between them. Materials and Method: The study group of the research consisted of 471 (181 female, 290 male) pre-service physical education teacher studying at four different state universities. The mean age of the participants was 21.96±2.45. 'Career Stress Scale', 'Maslach Burnout Scale-Student Form' and 'Positive Future Expectation Scale' were used as data collection tools in the study. As a statistical method in the analysis of data; descriptive statistics (frequency, arithmetic mean, standard deviation); t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson Correlation tests were used. Finding: While the participants' perceptions of career stress and burnout were below the middle level, positive future expectation perceptions were above the middle level. Pre-service physical education teacher's career stress perceptions differed significantly according to gender, income and father's education level; burnout perceptions differed significantly according to grade level, actively (licensed) engage in sports status, income, and father's education level; positive future expectation perceptions differed significantly according to income status. Result: As the number of sibling of pre-service physical education teachers increased, career stress perception increased and positive future expectations decreased. On the other hand, as the academic achievement of the participants increased, their burnout perception decreased. As physical education teacher candidates' burnout levels increased, career stresses also increased. Finally, as the career stress and burnout levels of pre-service physical education teachers increased, their positive future expectations decreased.