The meditating role of psychology help-seeking stigma in relationship between organizational DNA and mental toughness and job burnout among teachers

Alinezhad  F; Amirpour  B

doi:10.18502/tkj.v17i4.20926

Alinezhad F MA, Department of General Psychology, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, Payame Noor University, Tehran. Iran
Amirpour B Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18502/tkj.v17i4.20926

Keywords: Stigma, Mental toughness, Organizational DNA, Burnout, Psychological help-seeking

Abstract

Introduction: Considering the vital role of educators in the culture of society and their close relationship with students, any efforts to increase mental health and improve their performance within the educational organization deserves attention. Given the scarce research on the connection between organizational DNA and psychological components among teachers, this question arises: Can the psychological help seeking stigma play a mediating role in the relationship between organizational DNA and mental toughness with teachers' job burnout?

Materials and Methods: The present study utilized a method that was objective, quantitative by nature, and descriptive in terms of correlation type (structural equation model). The statistical population of the research included all primary and special education teachers in the Sarpol Zahab in the academic year 2023-2024 who had a minimum of three years of educational work experience. Employing the Krejci- Morgan table and stratified random sampling, a total of 205 teachers (100 male and105 female) were selected. The research background utilized the library method, and data was gathered using Meshach’s job burnout questionnaire (1981), Ardalan et al.'s organizational DNA questionnaire (1400), Clough's mental toughness questionnaire (2002) and Clough et al.'s psychological help-seeking stigma scale concerning occupational stress and Job burnout (2020. The proposed model was evaluated through structural equation modeling (SEM) and the mediating effect of psychological help-seeking stigma was assessed using the Sobel test using SPSS-28 and AMOS-26 software.

Results: The findings indicated that all the absolute, comparative and parsimonious indicators of the model demonstrated favorable fitness. In the examined structural model, the negative effect of organizational DNA on help-seeking stigma, -0/297 (p=0/034) and job burnout, -0/161 (p<0/001), as along with the negative effect of mental toughness on help-seeking stigma, -0/754 and job burnout, -0/690 (p<0/001), were found to be significant. Furthermore, the findings indicated that help-seeking stigma positively influenced job burnout by 0/342 (p<0/001). Additionally, the Sobel test indicated that help-seeking stigma significantly mediated the connection between organizational DNA and burnout (p<0/05, z=-3/82) as well as the relationship between psychological resilience and burnout (p<0/05, z=-4/03).

Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate that the proposed model played a crucial role in recognizing the significant factors contributing to teacher burnout and can serve as a model for designing burnout prevention programs for educators while increasing their psychological well-being.