Education professionals are one of the sectors most affected by work stress (von der Embse et al., 2019). Stress in teachers has also been widely addressed and recognized as a major problem worldwide (Loonstra et al., 2009; Van Droogenbroeck and Spruyt, 2015. Teachers have to comply with many heterogeneous responsibilities in their work (daily routines, student performance, and satisfying parent demands), which define teaching as a profession of special risk (von der Embse et al., 2019). This and other facts, such as little recognition, or lack of institutional support, is reducing the number of highly capable workers in the education sector (Donahue-Keegan et al., 2019).

Burnout syndrome is described as a behavioral manifestation of work stress, always in the context of an organization where “emotional exhaustion, depersonalization (or cynicism), and low personal fulfillment can occur frequently among individuals whose work involves care or assistance to people” (Maslach et al., 1997). Work stress and burnout are related not only to sick leave and drop-out rates, but also to general and mental health problems (Toppinen-Tanner et al., 2009). According to several authors, low control, high demands, and imbalance of efforts have been shown to play an important role in predicting risk of premature death (Vahtera et al., 2004).

There has been controversy about the possible absence of pathognomonic signs of its own when considering the syndrome as a disorder and, frequently, attempts have been made to reduce it to a kind of depression caused by work (Bianchi et al., 2013). Maybe for this reason, it is not considered in the DSM-V classification as an entity of its own (American Psychiatric Association, 2013), although it could be included under the category of “adaptive disorder,” coinciding with the development of emotional or behavioral symptoms in response to an identifiable psychosocial stressor (Kakiashvili et al., 2013). But the syndrome is somewhat different and, in addition to the characteristic signs and symptoms of depression, other indicators are present. Emotional exhaustion is the central feature, but the syndrome is accompanied by feelings of depersonalization and also by an increasing lack of professional fulfillment from work (Maslach et al., 1997). On the other hand, affected people do not always respond to treatment with antidepressant drugs, they usually show improvement if they are away from work for a while and; when they run out of their time limit due to sick leave, some decide not to return to their job, even they will refuse to accept another job within their profession (Kowalczuk et al., 2020).

Given the overwhelming evidence, the World Health Organization recognized this syndrome as an occupational condition that affects millions of workers around the world (Reed et al., 2019).

In recent decades, there have been many studies that have tried to explain burnout, either through socio-demographic variables, or due to causes related to personality traits, or due to the presence or absence of abilities or skills, such as resilience, proactive strategies (Pietarinen et al., 2013), emotional intelligence (Ju et al., 2015), and satisfaction and motivation (Skaalvik and Skaalvik, 2011).

Although many authors point out that gender, seniority, and level of education imparted can predict burnout (Burke and Greenglass, 1995), except for the moderating effect of social support, there are no conclusive results whit respect to socio-demographic aspects. According to Ahola et al. (2006), living in a stable relationship, seems to be a factor which prevents depersonalization (or cynicism). But it has also been found that not all workers in the same company feel equally affected, and different subtypes of burnout have even been described–“frenetic,” “under-challenged,” and “worn-out”–depending on the type of personal characteristics (Montero-Marín et al., 2013).

Research on this syndrome has repeatedly confirmed that one should not focus on individual variables, and that the phenomenon is generated through complex interactions between the variables of the organization and those of each person (Schaufeli et al., 2009). Based on the results of several surveys on work-related stress, Maslach and Leiter (2008) also offered a model based on the variables or “Areas of Work Life,” which could contribute to burnout experience. The proposed areas are: workload, control, rewards, fairness, values, and community. Of these, the community area refers to the relationships between employees and their bosses, colleagues and the people they serve.

Personal relationships, especially those based on the demands of clients, patients, and students, are of great importance in the accumulation of stress and the development of burnout (Bakker et al., 2000). In this type of relationship, adequate emotional management plays a crucial role, often producing a containment or repression of emotions (Zhao and Ding, 2019). Professionals can live daily with emotions such as fear, anxiety, even situations of violence, which can contribute to emotional erosion (Gascón et al., 2009).

There are many studies on the climate in class, but not so many on adjustment of the teacher-student relationship has received less attention (Corbin et al., 2019; Teuber et al., 2021). The topic of the relationship between teacher and student was addressed by Claessens et al. (2017), whose results conclude that teachers defined the quality of the relationship mostly by the level of communication (friendly vs. hostile), instead of by the level of action (in control vs. powerless).

A high level of student demands can predict teacher burnout symptoms (Teuber et al., 2021) and it has been shown that students’ conflictive relationships with teachers are related to higher emotional exhaustion and lower personal fulfillment (Corbin et al., 2019). On the other hand, the absence of a positive atmosphere in class increases the possibility of burnout and, as a consequence, will diminish the affective commitment with the organization (Hakanen et al., 2006); feelings of justice at work, also, provide a buffer against burnout (Riolli and Savicki, 2006).

Until recently, student aggression toward teachers have not been sufficiently studied (Tiesman et al., 2014; Berg and Cornell, 2016), and has focused mainly on aggression among pupils. The conflict between teachers and students and, more recently, aggression in education, have been the object of analysis in relation to professional burnout (Krause and Smith, 2022). Aloe et al. (2014) made a contribution to the literature by conducting a multivariate meta-analysis aimed at exploring the relationship between student misbehavior and the dimensions of burnout. Episodes of violence and the possibility of suffering continuous aggression have been shown as explanatory variables of burnout in other professions due to their role in the development of the syndrome (Gascón et al., 2013a).

Smith and Smith (2006) showed that the threat of violence in schools was the main contributing factor teachers faced when teaching at an urban school. In U.S., Tiesman et al. (2014) found that teachers who work in an urban school were almost four times more likely to have been physically assaulted than those who work in rural schools. Physical aggression had a significant impact on the job satisfaction of education workers and on health-related quality of life. Having experienced at least one physical aggression during one course increased the probability of seeing work as stressful up to twice as much, and entailed 2.4 more probability of not being satisfied with their work. In addition, those who had been physically assaulted were almost 11 times more likely to present intention to quit their jobs (Krause and Smith, 2022).

The reality in Europe is not different, especially with regard to conflict in compulsory secondary education. In Spain, secondary education begins at age 12 and lasts until age 18, and it is compulsory until the age of 16. Teachers enter the state education system by passing a competitive entrance exam; however, passing the exam does not initially ensure tenure and job stability, as new teachers have to take up posts far from their place of residence or in remote areas, until they have built up the seniority necessary to choose a location more suited to them (Botía, 2004). The hardness of the access system, the conditions of the first decades, deficits in promotion development, low wages, the loss of status, and the difficulties involved in working with conflictive and violent students, contributes to a gradual lack of motivation and the wear and tear of these professionals (Gadella Kamstra, 2020).

The purpose of this study is to examine the contribution of work-related factors such as adjustment in the teacher-pupil relationship, threats, complaints, and aggressions on core dimensions of teacher burnout in Spain.

The Statistical Package SPSS 27.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, United States, Released 2012). IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows has been used to perform all the statistical analyses of the study.

The results confirm the findings of other studies: individual characteristics, such as gender, age, or seniority, did not contribute to explain the development of burnout, but, rather, those variables related to working life (Maslach and Leiter, 2008). Similarly, no differences were found between burnout levels in different settings (urban or rural) or professionals working in state or private schools. Seniority only has an effect in the group for those with 3–6 years of experience, and affected only the dimension of emotional exhaustion.

Although the social support variable was not analyzed, the fact of living with a partner showed a statistically significant relationship with the dimension of cynicism. This result coincides with the majority of the research in which the relationships between perceived social support on stress and health have been analyzed (Ahola et al., 2006; Jakobsen et al., 2022).

It is impossible to describe every aspect of the work environment with which the person interacts. Especially in the educational environment. As in other studies, the weight that workload has on exhaustion has been verified, in the same way that this dimension maintains a high relationship with that of cynicism, and both in turn in the configuration of the feeling of efficacy or inefficiency in the job.

Also the aspects that make up the variables of working life, contribute differently in each profession. In secondary education, in addition to overload, the community area helps to explain the levels of exhaustion. The area of insufficient intrinsic rewards helps explain cynicism, while overload, lack of rewards, and value conflict explain, in part, levels of inefficacy.

Finally, the imbalance in the teacher-student relationship and the aggressions are related to the levels of the three dimensions that make up the burnout syndrome. Specifically, feelings of rejection, physical aggression, and insults show a statistically significant relationship with exhaustion. Feelings of fear and rejection of students, as well as threats and claims help explain the dimension of cynicism; and likewise, the fears a rejection, together with the episodes of threats that help explain the dimension of inefficiency.

Although due to the type of study and analysis, we cannot establish causal relationships, but rather relational ones. For example, the fact of having feelings of fear toward the students, or feeling rejection toward them or their behavior, could contribute to the dimension of exhaustion or cynicism. But, equally, teachers who felt tired and show responses of cynicism could facilitate mistrust, rejection, even violent situations between students and teachers.

Teacher-student relationships, and, in its most problematic aspect, aggressions toward educators by students or their families seem to be of great importance (Aloe et al., 2014; Krause and Smith, 2022).

It should be noted that there was no specific instrument to assess the degree of adjustment or maladjustment in the relationship of these professionals with their students. In this sense, the FREQ questionnaire, created and validated for this occasion, could be useful, showing good psychometric properties in two measurement moments and confirming a structure of two factors: fears and rejection.

Research on violence toward teachers has been abundant in the United States, but not so much in the rest of the world until recent years (Alzyoud et al., 2016; Galdames and Pezoa, 2016). Galand et al. (2007) tested through structural equation modeling–two models of the relationships between perceived school support, exposure to school violence, subjective wellbeing, and professional disengagement. Although the study only provides correlational information, the results reveal that school support is related to exposure to school violence, subjective wellbeing and professional disengagement, whereas the variable wellbeing moderates the effect of school violence on disengagement. However, the aforementioned study does not provide any measure of burnout, using instead a questionnaire for depression, anxiety, and somatization symptoms. A factor related to violence studied in this research is to have been a victim or witness of violence or to have received previous complaints from the pupils and/or parents. A few studies that have been published on this subject make it clear that being a victim or witness of violence is strongly related to anxious, depressive, or somatic symptoms (Galand et al., 2007).

Violence in the educational environment is a worrying issue for governments. Both that related to cases of bullying among the students themselves, and that exercised by teachers (Pişkin et al., 2014) and, as is the case in this study, the aggressive behavior of students or family members toward teachers (McMahon et al., 2017; Longobardi et al., 2019).

Much remains to be investigated, both on the variables involved in teacher burnout, and on the interactions between them, as well as the possible consequences of harmful–even aggressive–relationships on the mental and physical health of educators. This study confirms that variables such as the adjustment in the teaching relationship and the episodes of violence have a greater explanatory power on the burnout of secondary school teachers.

As a limitation is the design of the study as cross sectional studies cannot be understood as indicating causal relationships. Future studies should include structural equation modeling to examine the interrelation between burnout dimensions and violence-related variables.

Another limitation is, when the variables were conceptualized, the contextual variable “underprivileged environment” was not taken into account, whereas, as demonstrated in previous studies (Vercambre et al., 2009), working in an underprivileged context was associated with higher scores for both emotional exhaustion and cynicism, or depersonalization. On the other hand, we don’t include all contextual factors that have demonstrated high explanatory power in previous studies, such as number of pupils or teaching hours. Although the sample we based the study on is representative with regards to distribution among the two school types (state and private), the general conclusion about age or gender or school environment (urban or rural) have to be interpreted with caution. As justification for this, we considered that the Spanish educational system is highly homogeneous in this aspect, without striking differences in the number of teaching hours or number of pupils.

It is worrying to note that one out of every three teachers have suffered verbal abuse at least once, and 3.8% have been a victim of physical abuse. Although physical violence is extremely rare (and low intensity), verbal victimization or threats are associated with burnout in a highly significant manner, which confirms previous findings about violence and burnout (Gascón et al., 2013a). Regarding the greater prevalence of verbal abuse, we must mention the work on incivility that has focused on the connections of bad social behavior with burnout and other forms of distress at work (Cortina et al., 2017).

The deterioration of teachers’ wellbeing and health is not only a personal harm, but also an attack on a common good and on the future development of the society that suffers them (Ervasti et al., 2012). Moreover, being educated in a climate of violence can lead to negative consequences during life (Maja et al., 2013). For this reason, there is a warning of the risk that may be posed by the fact that the classrooms in which the youngest are educated are dominated by a climate of fear or violence (Munn et al., 2007).

Although the methodology of this study does not allow establishing causal relationships, the data point to a relationship between physical and verbal aggression and other burnout variables; and should be used to design specific programs to equip teachers with the tools and skills necessary to cope with such abuse.

The Administration, which is pushing for teachers to be more resolute and innovative, does not provide the necessary means to do so. Although the Spanish government makes it understood that teachers are responsible for what happens in the classroom, it should protect teachers more from violence by creating new policies.

There is no room for doubt that burnout is a very complex syndrome and therefore requires treatment that will cover its multi-dimensionality. An effective intervention should address both the elements of the individual and organizational intervention (Awa et al., 2010), and the latter should incorporate protective measures against violence. Specifically, behavior modification programs should be incorporated and aimed at the management of stressful situations between the teacher and student in order to improve the relationship between both parties.

Taking into account the peculiarities of each educational system, these results could serve as a reference for other countries.

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Comisión de Ética en la Investigación de la Comunidad de Aragón. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

BM, SG-S, MA, and RM-B: conceptualization. BM: data curation. BM, BO-B, and SG-S: formal analysis. BM, RM-B, and CB-M: investigation. BM, BO-B, SG-S, and RM-B: methodology. SG-S, AA, MA, and CB-M: project administration. AA and CB-M: resources. SG-S, MA, and AA: software. RM-B and SG-S: supervision and writing—original draft. BM and SG-S: validation. BM and BO-B: visualization. All authors contributed to writing—review and editing, contributed to the article, and approved the submitted version.