The purpose of the study was to test a model of factors predicting teachers’ job and life satisfaction, burnout, dispositional optimism, social support, perceived workload, and self-efficacy. The model extends Lent and Brown’s (J Voc Behav 69(2):236–247,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2006.02.006, 2006; J Career Assess 16(1):6–21,https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072707305769, 2008) social cognitive model of the interaction of sources of job and life satisfaction. Specifically, burnout, a condition with a high incidence rate among teachers, was included. The participants were 676 Swiss teachers. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. The results revealed the differential effect of the variables considered on teachers' burnout and job satisfaction, as well as their life satisfaction. Dispositional optimism, social support, and perceived workload might reduce the risk of teacher burnout; dispositional optimism, social support, and teacher self-efficacy seem to positively affect job satisfaction; and dispositional optimism alone, together with burnout and job satisfaction, directly relates to teachers’ life satisfaction. Practical implications of these results are discussed.

Positive levels of global life satisfaction are associated with a broad range of positive personal, psychological, and social outcomes both in the present and future. However, for adolescents, little is known about the underlying personal characteristics that predict global life satisfaction. Thus, the aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between personality traits, self-esteem, self-efficacy, and global life satisfaction in a sample of 437 Swiss adolescents attending the second last year of compulsory school. Results have shown that conscientiousness, neuroticism, extraversion, self-esteem, and self-efficacy are significantly associated with global life satisfaction. Moreover, self-esteem seems to be a mediator of the relationship between personality traits and global life satisfaction, suggesting that it might be considered as a process variable regulating behaviors, feelings, and thoughts that are related to personality dimensions.

In the Swiss education system, approximately 55% of adolescents are required to make their first vocational choice at the end of mandatory school. This can induce transitory or long-lasting career indecision that is recognized as being influenced by personal and contextual factors. The aim of this study is to analyze the relationships between career decision-making difficulties and the five-factor model of personality traits, parental support, and self-esteem in 448 Grade 9 Swiss adolescents. We then proceeded to test if these relationships vary according to the adolescent’s educational choice (i.e., whether they attend high school or if they choose an apprenticeship or vocational training). Results have highlighted the importance of neuroticism, conscientiousness, and parental support to predict career decision-making difficulties. Moreover, parental support mediated the relationships between extraversion and agreeableness (fully) and between conscientiousness (partially) and career decision-making difficulties. Finally, the educational choice had no impact on the overall pattern of relationships. Implications for career counselor practices were further discussed.