AGE AND SELF-EFFICACY AS PREDICTORS OF BURNOUT TENDENCY AMONG LECTURERS IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN LAGOS STATE

Abstract

The study examined age and self-efficacy as predictors of burnout tendency among lecturers in tertiary institutions in Lagos state. The problem statement lies on the fact that burnout is recognized by onlookers rather than its victims, coupled with inadequate investment in Nigerian tertiary education, lack of motivation and commitment by government, work related stress due to daily interaction with students, age and self-efficacy beliefs that may trigger burnout tendency. To achieve the objectives of this study five research questions were formulated with three null hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance. A correlational research design was adopted for the study. The study population was 2742 lecturers in the federal tertiary institutions in Lagos State. A proportionate stratified random sampling technique was employed to select lecturers in three public federal tertiary institutions. Fifty percent of the lecturers in each of the three federal tertiary institutions in Lagos state was selected. This yielded the following; federal university, 853 lecturers, federal polytechnic, 398 lecturers and federal college of education, 120 lecturers, giving a total of 1371 lecturers which formed the sample of the study. Instruments used for data collection were self-efficacy Scale (SES) and Teacher Burnout Inventory (TBI). Aggregate scores and Multiple regression analysis were used for the analysis. The result showed that all the variables jointly predict burnout tendency among lecturers. Self-efficacy contributed 17% and age contributed 5.4% to lecturers’ burnout tendency. Majority of the lecturers 909 (76.3%) have high self-efficacy while very few of the lecturers 10 (0.8%) have high burnout tendency. This signifies that self-efficacy is a booster in curbing incidence of burnout tendency among lecturers, therefore aligning with other findings that the higher the lecturers self-efficacy the lower the burnout tendency. This finding recommends that since majority of lecturers have high self-efficacy, government and institution authorities should enact policies that will help to build and sustain self-efficacy among lecturers by providing incentives, educational infrastructures and training.