ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Occupational Health and Safety
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1610378
This article is part of the Research TopicPublic Health Strategies to Improve Mental Health in the Education Sector: Perspectives and ApplicationsView all 19 articles
Burnout of School Principals in Poland: Work Demands, Resources, and Stressors
Provisionally accepted
- Institute of Public Affairs, Faculty of Management and Social Communication, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
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Background: School principals face increasing professional challenges and psychological strain, amplified by extra-organizational stressors such as political and systemic changes, climate change, war, and economic instability. These factors can elevate job demands and increase the risk of professional burnout.Methods: This study examined the relationship between burnout among 117 Polish public school principals and their subjective perception of extra-organizational stressors as well as the use of job resources. Burnout was measured using the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory, while support sources and perceived external pressures were assessed via a custom questionnaire.Multiple regression analyses were conducted to assess predictive relationships.Results: Burnout was significantly associated with perceptions of changes in the educational system. Institutional support from the education system was linked to lower burnout levels, while support via social media was associated with higher burnout and disengagement. Other factors, such as concerns about the economy, climate change, and war, were not significantly associated with burnout.Findings highlight the critical impact of systemic educational reform as a unique stressor contributing to burnout among school principals. Institutional support appears to buffer this effect, while reliance on informal networks such as social media may reflect deeper professional distress. These results suggest the need for structural support mechanisms tailored to school leadership roles.
Keywords: burnout, extraorganizational stressors, Job resources, Oldenburg burnout inventory, burnout in school principals
Received: 11 Apr 2025; Accepted: 02 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kołodziejczyk, Mazurkiewicz and Kołodziejczyk. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jakub Kołodziejczyk, Institute of Public Affairs, Faculty of Management and Social Communication, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
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