This work was done with 689 Portuguese high school teachers. We evaluated the stress, burnout, physical health and professional fulfilment. The results revealed very significant levels of occupational stress (percentages near 40%), a different frequency of burnout in the three appraised dimensions (10% in emotional exhaustion, 3% in reduced personal accomplishment and 1% in depersonalization), various physical health problems and values of professional dissatisfaction close to 20%. Multiple regression analysis pointed different predictors' variables for the three dimensions of burnout (more than 60% of explained variance for emotional exhaustion, 16% for personal accomplishment and 13% for depersonalization). The discriminant analysis and "t-test" for independent samples allowed us to verify more occupational problems (in different variables) in the following groups: women, older teachers, professionals with more precarious contracts, teachers working more hours per week and teachers with more students in the classroom. Limitations and implications of the present study are discussed.
stress; burnout; physical health; satisfaction; teaching
