Investigation of the relationship between burnout levels and perceived social support of teachers working with students with special needs

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between burnout levels of teachers working with students with special needs and their perceived social support. In this study, relational survey model, one of the quantitative research methods, was used. The research was carried out as online with the participation of 356 teachers working with students with special needs working in special education schools and special education centers during the 2020-2021 academic year. Research data were collected through Personal Information Form, Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educator Form and Multidimensional Perceived Social Support Scale. The collected data with the data collection tools in the research were analyzed with the SPSS 25 software. Descriptive statistics of the participants are presented as percentage and frequency in Tables. Mann-Whitney U, Kruskall Wallis H and Chi-square analyzes were used for comparison analyses. In addition in the context of the relationship, the Spearman rho correlation coefficient was used. According to the findings; among the burnout levels of teachers working with students with special needs; While there was no significant difference in terms of gender, marital status and disability group, graduate teachers experienced higher levels of burnout than undergraduate graduates, employees in private institutions than those working in public institutions, and general education teachers than special education teachers.Among the perceived social support levels; While there was no significant difference in terms of gender, educational status, institution and educational environment, married teachers had a higher perception of social support than single teachers, and teachers working with children with ASD had a lower level of social support than teachers working with other disability groups. KEYWORDS: special education, burnout, social support