Program

K-12 Administration Ed.D.

Number of Pages

173

Year Approved

2025

First Advisor

Judith Nagel

Second Reader

Erin Lavery

Third Reader

Sandra Pettingell

Abstract

This study explored the relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and professional quality of life among Minnesota special education teachers, focusing on compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress. Participants included special education teachers who provided special education services to students in kindergarten through transition programs, held Tier 3 or Tier 4 teaching licenses, and had taught for at least 1 school year during the 2022-23, 2023-24, or 2024-25 academic years. A total of 1,025 teachers completed an online survey distributed via Qualtrics, which included the Adverse Childhood Experience Questionnaire and the Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL5). Descriptive statistics revealed an average Compassion Satisfaction score of 38.9 (SD = 5.4), an average Burnout score of 25.7 (SD = 5.5), and an average Secondary Traumatic Stress score of 24.9 (SD = 6.1). The average ACE score was 1.9 (SD = 2.2). ACE risk levels were categorized as low (33.8% with an ACE score of 0), medium (46.0% with scores of 1-3), and high (20.2% with scores of 4 or more). While ACEs were not significantly correlated with compassion satisfaction, higher ACE scores were significantly linked to higher burnout and secondary traumatic stress levels. The results suggest that ACEs may negatively impact special education teachers' emotional well-being and professional quality of life. These findings emphasize the importance of addressing the impacts of Adverse Childhood Experiences on teachers, while also leveraging compassion satisfaction, to mitigate the risk of burnout and secondary traumatic stress among special education teachers in Minnesota.

Degree Name

Education Doctorate

Document Type

Doctoral dissertation

Terms of Use and License Information

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

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