Vocal problems and Burnout Syndrome in teachers

A cross-sectional descriptive study with 90 nonuniversity teachers using the Multidimensional Vocal Scale for Teachers (EVM-D) was applied to quantify the level of vocal problems, and the Spanish adaptation of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) was used to detect burnout syndrome. The Multidimensional Vocal Scale for Teachers (EVM-D, acronym in Spanish) consists of 12 items distributed in three dimensions. The first dimension (Vocal abuse, 3 items) is aimed at detecting possible abuse in the classroom, such as “talking over the noise”, “increased volume” and “shouting”. The second dimension (Speech habits, 3 items) identifies the teacher’s speech habits as “excessive talking”, “excessive speed” and “excessive intensity”. The third dimension includes 6 vocal symptoms easily recognizable by the teacher: “dryness”, “vocal strength”, “throat clearing”, “fatigue”, “hoarseness” and “effort”. All responses were evaluated on a Likert scale of 0-6 according to their degree of perception, which is a wider range compared to the original EVM-D vocal scale. THE MBI includes 22 items distributed in the Emotional Exhaustion (EE), Depersonalization (DP) and Personal Accomplishment (PA) subscales. Each item is scored on a Likert scale from 0 (never) to 6 (every day), the scores obtained were converted to percentiles and classified as high level for percentiles greater than 66, medium level for percentiles 66-33 and low level for those below 33. The sociodemographic and labor data recorded were age, sex, history of anxiety and/or depression, type of employment contract (permanent or temporary), years of teaching experience, number of students per classroom and weekly teaching hours.