Exploring Special Educator Burnout and, in Turn, the Impact of Burnout on Special Educators' Treatment Integrity in Behavior Support Plans: Project Burn and Turn

The Principal Investigator (PI) will conduct a program of research to better understand the risk factors for special educator burnout and its relation to teachers' fidelity of implementing behavior interventions to students with and at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders (EBDs). At the same time, the PI will participate in mentoring and training activities to develop expertise in teachers serving students with EBD, multilevel structural equation modeling and mixed methods research, and grant writing. Due to their intensive behavior needs, students with EBD present some of the greatest challenges to special educators and demonstrate some of the poorest in-school and post-school outcomes. Although research has documented high levels of burnout among special educators, an examination of malleable factors that influence teacher burnout and the specific aspects of burnout related to fidelity of implementing behavior interventions is needed to inform future interventions. To address this the PI will explore the relationship between several potential malleable factors (e.g., behavior management efficacy, role stressors, cohesion with paraprofessionals, teacher-student relationships) and burnout as well as the relationship between burnout and educators' implementation of behavior support plans (BSPs) and students' behavior outcomes.