Il benessere degli insegnanti: il ruolo del supporto sociale e delle dimensioni organizzative [Teachers' well-being: The role of social support and organizational dimensions]

This study aims to investigate the relation between individual and organizational demands and resources and well-being in a group of teachers. 209 teachers (mean age = 47.49, 80% female) from 201 middle and high schools of the Lombardy Region were asked to complete a questionnaire on the socio-personal and school characteristics, like perception of working conditions like student discipline management, relationship to families, job overload, principal support and teamwork with other teachers; burnout, engagement and job satisfaction. A path analysis highlighted that two dimensions of burnout and engagement are strongly influenced by the quality of the relationship with the principal. Management of student disciplinary problems seems to weakly influence the levels of burnout or engagement. Moreover, support from the principal and family affected job satisfaction, mediated by burnout and engagement. Results underscore the need to care of teacherwell-being by means of an organizational approach that takes into account the individual and contextual resources, the relational aspects and the management of the school as an integrated system. Among these resources, the role of the principal seems to be particularly important