Does Teacher Emotional Exhaustion and Efficacy Predict Student Discipline Sanctions?

Teacher emotional factors influence the classroom environment. The purpose of the study was to examine the association of teacher emotional exhaustion and teacher efficacy with student office discipline referrals (ODRs), in-school suspensions (ISSs), and out-of-school suspensions (OSSs) using multilevel logistic regression models. The sample included 105 teachers and 1,663 students from nine elementary schools in the United States. Higher teacher emotional exhaustion was associated with increased use of ODR and ISS but not OSS. For students with teachers experiencing burnout, the odds of receiving an ISS increased by a factor of 1.74 (d = .31). Greater teacher efficacy was also associated with lower use of OSS but not ODR or ISS. The results suggest that improving teacher efficacy and reducing teacher emotional exhaustion may support the reduced use of exclusionary discipline practices.