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Revista del Hospital Psiquiátrico de
La Habana
Volumen 21 | Nº3 | Año 2024 |
ISSN: 0138-7103 | RNPS: 2030
_____________________________________________
Original
The relationship between Depersonalization and Self-perceived
Interpersonal Intelligence among Ecuatorian Higher Education
Teachers
La relación entre la despersonalización y la inteligencia
interpersonal autopercibida entre profesores ecuatorianos de
educación superior
José Alejandro Valdevila Figueira
1,2,3*
Omar Ruiz-Barzola
4
Jessica Vera-Bermudez
4
Indira Dayana Carvajal Parra
2,3
Rocío Valdevila Santiesteban
2
Luis Patricio Benenaula Vargas
1,2
1
Faculty of Marketing and Communication,
ECOTEC Technological University
, Guayaquil. Ecuador.
2
Research network in psychology and psychiatry (GIPSI), Guayaquil. Ecuador.
3
Institute of Neurosciences of Guayaquil, Ecuador.
4
ESPOL Polytechnic University, ESPOL, Faculty of Life Sciences, Guayaquil – Ecuador
Recibido: 06/07/2024
Aceptado: 01/10/2024
The relationship between depersonalization and self-perceived interpersonal intelligence among Ecuadorian higher education
teachers
Rev. Hosp Psiq. Hab Vol. 21 | Nº 3 | Año 2024 |
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Abstract
Introduction:
The relationship between burnout and emotional intelligence has been widely studied.
Alterations in dimensions, such as emotional exhaustion, personal accomplishment and intrapersonal
skills have shown a close relationship with teaching, with notable differences with other dimensions,
such as depersonalization and interpersonal skills.
Objective:
Assess the association between the depersonalization indicator and interpersonal skills in
Ecuadorian university professors.
Materials and methods:
The
adapted version for teachers
of the Maslach Burnout Inventory Educator
Survey
was applied
. An ad hoc scale developed by researchers was used to determine interpersonal
intelligence.
Results:
Low levels of depersonalization and high levels of interpersonal intelligence were observed.
Most teachers assessed their interpersonal skills to be positive. A negative, but significant relationship
was found between depersonalization and interpersonal intelligence, with notable differences between
genders. Men showed higher levels of depersonalization compared to women.
Conclusions:
This study reveals a significant association between depersonalization and interpersonal
intelligence in the academic context. Findings suggest that, although men experience higher levels of
depersonalization, self-perception of interpersonal skills is generally high in both genders. These results
highlight the importance of considering personal and gender factors in the well-being and performance
of university teachers, challenging the notion that academic experience alone is sufficient for good
educational performance.
Keywords:
teacher burnout, depersonalization, cynicism, interpersonal skills, self-concept, sex
differences.
Resumen
Introducción:
La relación entre el desgaste profesional y la inteligencia emocional se ha estudiado
ampliamente. Alteraciones en dimensiones como el agotamiento emocional, la realización personal y
las habilidades intrapersonales han demostrado una estrecha relación con el ejercicio de la docencia, con
diferencias notables con otras dimensiones como la despersonalización y las habilidades
interpersonales.
Objetivo:
Evaluar la asociación entre el indicador de despersonalización y las habilidades
interpersonales en profesores universitarios ecuatorianos.
Materiales y método:
Se aplicó la versión adaptada para docentes del Maslach Burnout Inventory
Educator Survey. Para la determinación de la inteligencia interpersonal se utilizó una escala ad hoc
elaborada por los investigadores.
Resultados:
Se observaron bajos niveles de despersonalización y altos niveles de inteligencia
interpersonal. La mayoría de los docentes valoraron positivamente sus habilidades interpersonales. Se
encontró una relación negativa, pero significativa entre la despersonalización y la inteligencia
The relationship between depersonalization and self-perceived interpersonal intelligence among Ecuadorian higher education
teachers
Rev. Hosp Psiq. Hab Vol. 21 | Nº 3 | Año 2024 |
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interpersonal, con diferencias notables entre géneros. Los hombres mostraron niveles más altos de
despersonalización en comparación con las mujeres.
Conclusiones:
Este estudio revela una asociación significativa entre la despersonalización y la
inteligencia interpersonal en el contexto académico. Los hallazgos sugieren que, aunque los hombres
experimentan mayores niveles de despersonalización, la autopercepción de habilidades interpersonales
es generalmente alta en ambos géneros. Estos resultados subrayan la importancia de considerar factores
personales y de género en el bienestar y desempeño de los docentes universitarios, al desafiar la noción
de que la experiencia académica por sí sola es suficiente para un buen desempeño educativo.
Palabras clave:
burnout docente, despersonalización, cinismo, habilidades interpersonales,
autoconcepto, diferencias de sexo.
Introduction
The emotional well-being of teachers is of concern to universities and society, since they are responsible
for transferring knowledge to students, guiding them during their studies, and consequently, preparing
future workers.
(1)
Teachers are often vulnerable to sustained burnout known as Burnout Syndrome (BS)
and their overall performance could be compromised at different levels.
(2-4)
Emotional exhaustion (EE),
depersonalization (DP) and low perception of personal accomplishment underlie BS, which usually
affects subjects who work directly with people.
There are multiple factors that make up BS, among which is depersonalization (DP).
Depersonalization represents an individual's interpersonal tension or cynicism toward clients or work
in response to an overload of emotional exhaustion,
(5, 6)
with an extreme response of detachment or
mental distancing toward the work and its components.
(7,8)
Depersonalization can constitute a manifestation of illness, represented by the alteration of the
understanding of the psychic phenomena that develop in the subject's own body, and although they
verbally express their experiences, do not recognize them as their own.
(9)
The phenomenon of DP refers
to all the experiences of the subject, but much more frequently it is limited to a small group of them,
such as thoughts, feelings, etc.
(10, 11)
Some authors have studied the importance of depersonalization in teaching performance.
(12)
Educators
who suffer from DP develop negative attitudes toward their students when interaction increases.
(13)
This
attitudinal problem is perceived by students, affecting their behavior and academic performance.
(14, 15)
Depersonalization can be evaluated with multiple instruments, the most used being the Maslach
Burnout Inventory (MBI), and the version adapted for teachers (MBI-ES).
(16)
Relevant research on the differences in the appearance of depersonalization in relation to gender report
disparate results, with some studies obtaining higher scores in female teachers in relation to male
teachers at different educational levels (17-19), and in others the results have not been sufficiently
conclusive.
(13,20)
The relationship between depersonalization and self-perceived interpersonal intelligence among Ecuadorian higher education
teachers
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The evaluation of the development of interpersonal skills proposes a gender challenge where some
academic studies show that women have significantly higher levels than men
(21-23)
and in others, no
statistically significant differences have been reported,
(24)
which can be explained by the management
of self-perception, which refers to how people think about themselves through a process of self-
observation of the behavior of individuals, and which can differ positively or negatively from the
judgment of the others.
(10,11)
An optimistic self-perception could have positive implications in the
mental area
(26)
or in promoting self-esteem.
(4)
In contrast, a pessimistic self-perception is common when
individuals experience depression and have expectations of poor performance.
(14,16)
In this scenario,
individuals are less likely to display selfish reasoning.
In the teaching context, interpersonal skills are also necessary within the educational institution, since
educators are expected to recognize and manage relationships in the classroom to achieve effective
student participation in classes.
(25, 26)
On this basis and considering that self-efficacy is related to the
stress of interpersonal interaction,
(27)
some authors have developed constructs to measure the
interpersonal self-efficacy of teachers.
(28, 29)
Apart from the classroom context and with co-workers in the management of the interpersonal skills of
educators, self-efficacy also addresses management with directors and superiors,
(28)
being possible to
integrate the measurement of self-efficacy through trust of teachers in their interaction with students and
the organization through consideration and influence.
(29)
On the other hand, it is possible to measure
teachers' interpersonal skills using relaxation techniques such as mindfulness.
(30)
Finally, interpersonal
skills can be measured taking emotional intelligence as an indicator due to its direct relationship with
understanding and monitoring the emotions of others.
(31-33)
The objective of this research is to analyze depersonalization, measured through the MBI-ES scale,
based on a self-perceived IPI score to demonstrate whether the IPI and the DP maintain the statistical
relationship reported in previous studies, and its relationship with gender.
Materials and methods
Data collection.
For data collection, an ad hoc survey was developed with questions to obtain demographic data, the
evaluation of self-perception of mastery of multiple intelligences, according to Gardner's theory;
(34)
and a proposal to determine the level of professional burnout.
(5)
For interpersonal intelligence, participants were asked to rate on a continuous scale, from 0 (not
competent) to 10 (completely competent), how skilled they thought they were in IPI at the time of the
survey. Along with this, we provided an explanatory note on the definition of IPI that would be used:
“Consider interpersonal intelligence as the ability to understand and interact with other people”.
(34)
The level of depersonalization was measured using the homonymous factor of the Maslach Burnout
Inventory Educator Survey,
(16)
which is a scale of 22 items distributed in three factors: (a) Emotional
exhaustion, nine items (α = .88); (b) Personal accomplishment, eight items (α = .8) and (c)
Depersonalization, five items (α = .56). The responses in the construct represent the frequency with
which participants experienced the proposition of the items on a Likert scale ranging from 0 (never) to 6
The relationship between depersonalization and self-perceived interpersonal intelligence among Ecuadorian higher education
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(every day). The original instrument yielded a Cronbach's alpha of 0.83 (5), and the present study
obtained a coefficient of 0.85.
Survey and participants
We conducted a paper survey applied to 315 teachers from two public universities in Ecuador, selected
through non-probabilistic sampling from a total population of 2921 teachers (ESPOL n = 600 and UEG
n =2321). The questionnaire was administered anonymously to the teachers who responded with prior
consent from the authorities of the institutions. The authorities of the faculties invited teachers to
participate in the survey, which was carried out in an institutional facility provided by each university.
Figure 1.
Participant breakdown for the Survey on Teacher Burnout and Interpersonal Intelligence in
Ecuadorian Universities
Note:
figure 1. The sample consisted of 315 teachers from two public universities in Ecuador, using non-probabilistic sampling. The study
used only complete datasets, resulting in 288 valid cases (143 women and 145 men), which represents 91.4% of the initial sample. Surveys
were conducted anonymously and with the approval of the respective university authorities.
Attendees were informed of the main purpose of the study before agreeing to participate in the survey.
The sample for this research included only complete cases on the burnout scale and interpersonal
intelligence measurement, totaling 288 (91.4% of the observations in the initial data set).
The relationship between depersonalization and self-perceived interpersonal intelligence among Ecuadorian higher education
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Statistical analysis:
The teachers' DP score was calculated by adding the items that make up the DD dimension in the MBI-
ES construct (items 5, 10, 11, 15 and 22) (5). Next, internal consistency was measured for each facet of
the burnout scale using Cronbach's alpha (R package psych) (35). Descriptive statistics was summarized
on individual items, overall DP and IPI scores.
The distributions of DP and IPI scores were then analyzed, and outliers were identified (R package
univOutl) (36) using the boxplot method adjusted for non-normal distributions with a narrow margin
length of 1.5 as suggested in the literature (37, 38). Once the atypical points were identified, no case was
eliminated from the analysis, but their behavior with respect to the variables of interest was analyzed.
Subsequently, the relationship between DP was quantified as a function of self-perceived IPI using
Spearman correlation (ρs) and quantile regressions (QR; R package quantreg) (39) as robust methods
for the presence of outliers (40); The 25th, 50th, 75th, and 95th percentile equations for the QR models
were fitted to understand the overall relationship between DP and IPI. The XY pairwise method was
also used to estimate the standard errors of the regressors (40, 41), setting the seed to 123456 for
reproducibility.
Gender differences in DP and IPI scores were measured using percentile comparisons (R package
WRS2) (42). Therefore, the 25th, 50th, 75th and 95th percentiles of the two reported genders were
compared to explore changes at different levels (43-45). Finally, gender differences in the relationship
between DP and IPI were analyzed using QR models under the same conditions mentioned above. All
statistical data analysis was performed in R (version 4.1.2) and the significance level was set at 0, 05.
Results
Participants included 143 (49.6%) women and 145 (50.3%) men, aged 29 to 79 years, with a mean age
of 49 ± 0, 7. The teachers in the sample came from social sciences, education, business administration or
law faculties (n = 149, 51.7%); from engineering, industry, or construction faculty (n = 54, 18.8%);
from science faculties (n = 48, 16.7%); and from health or social service faculties (n = 37, 12.8%).
Most teachers were in a stable relationship at the time of the study, both cohabiting and married (n =
181; 62.8%), and 106 (36.8%) were separated, divorced, single or widowed. Most participants had
completed a postgraduate degree, either a master's degree (n = 225; 77.4%), or a doctorate (n = 33;
11.4%) and 14 (4.8%) had a bachelor's degree. Regarding working conditions, most teachers worked
full-time (n = 239; 82.6%) and with an indefinite employment contract (n = 211; 73.2%) (See Figure 2).
Figure 2.
Distributions of depersonalization and interpersonal intelligence scores
The relationship between depersonalization and self-perceived interpersonal intelligence among Ecuadorian higher education
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Note:
figure 2. Distributions of depersonalization and interpersonal intelligence scores. (a) and (c) display the distribution of DP scores
before and after removing outliers, respectively. (b) and (d) show the distribution of IPI scores before and after removing outliers,
respectively. Highlighted points in red stand for the outliers detected by the adjusted boxplot criterion.
The emotional exhaustion (EE) and depersonalization (DP) items showed low averages and positive
asymmetry. Personal achievements (PA) reported a negative skewness of less than -1, suggesting that
most teachers positively agreed on what was asked; therefore, most of the group obtained moderate to
high levels of personal accomplishment. Furthermore, respondents obtained a mean DP score of 4.17 ±
4.43 with a positive bias greater than 1, suggesting low levels of depersonalization for most teachers.
Among the DP items, most teachers stated that they never felt “treating some students as if they were
impersonal objects” (S = 3.96). Regarding the IPI, educators rated their interpersonal intelligence
between 0.1 and 10, with an average value of 8.78 ± 1.56 and an asymmetry value of −2.19, indicating a
high self-assessment of their abilities. Interpersonal (see Table 2).
Table 1.
Descriptive statistics of the Maslach Burnout Inventory items: depersonalization and self-
perceived interpersonal intelligence scores
The relationship between depersonalization and self-perceived interpersonal intelligence among Ecuadorian higher education
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Item
Min
Q1
~
X
X
Q3
Max
SD
S
EE1: Emotionally drained
0
1
2
2.12
3
6
1.66
.57
EE2: Used up at the end of the day
0
2
2
2.8
4
6
1.71
.42
EE3: Fatigued in the morning
0
0
1
1.49
2
6
1.49
1.1
EE6: Working with people is a strain
0
0
1
1.68
2.25
6
1.7
.96
EE8: Burned out
0
0
1
1.6
2
6
1.64
1.06
EE13: Frustrated
0
0
0
.92
1
6
1.42
1.76
EE14: Working too hard
0
0
2
1.99
3
6
1.85
.74
EE16: Working with people put stress on me
0
0
1
1.12
2
6
1.4
1.62
EE20: At the end of the rope
0
0
1
1.16
2
6
1.5
1.38
PA4: Easily understand students
0
4
5
4.69
6
6
1.23
−1.12
PA7: Deal effectively with students' problems
0
4
5
4.79
6
6
1.36
−1.36
PA9: Positively influence others
0
5
5
5.05
6
6
1.22
−1.88
PA12: Feeling energetic
1
5
5
5.06
6
6
1.19
−1.26
PA17: Create a relaxed atmosphere
0
5
5
5.04
6
6
1.22
−1.96
PA18: Feel exhilarated
0
5
5.5
5.2
6
6
1.04
−1.68
PA19: Accomplished worthwhile things
0
5
6
5.32
6
6
.94
−1.88
PA21: Deal with emotional problems calmly
0
4
5
4.62
6
6
1.5
−1.12
DP5: Treat students as impersonal objects
0
0
0
.32
0
6
.89
3.96
DP10: Callous toward people
0
0
0
.87
1
6
1.56
1.94
DP11: Job hardening me
0
0
0
.88
1
6
1.45
1.91
DP15: Don't care what happens to students
0
0
0
1.39
2
6
2.06
1.35
DP22: Students blame me
0
0
0
.69
1
6
1.07
2
DP score
0
1
3
4.17
6
21
4.43
1.42
Self-perceived IPI score
.10
8
9
8.78
10
10
1.56
-2.19
Note:
Abbreviations: EE, emotional exhaustion; PA, personal accomplishment; DP, depersonalization; IPI, interpersonal
intelligence; X
, median; X
, mean; SD, standard deviation; S, skewness.
In the DP distribution, teachers with higher levels of DP were less frequent in group (A). Regarding the
IPI score, educators who self-perceived their interpersonal skills as low (less than five) were considered
atypical behavior according to the adjusted box plot criterion (B). By dropping these points from the
analysis, the IPI skewness decreased, but the distribution was still negatively skewed (D). However, it
was desirable to explore the DP scores of those outlier points.
The relationship between depersonalization and self-perceived interpersonal intelligence among Ecuadorian higher education
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Figure 3.
Depersonalization (DP) vs. Self-reported interpersonal intelligence (IPI) scores
Note:
figure 3
Depersonalization (DP) vs. self-reported interpersonal intelligence (IPI) scores. Spearman correlation coefficient: ps = -.17, p-value =
.002. The highlighted lines represent the estimated QR equations DP
~
IPI
for the 25
th
, 50
th
, 75
th
, and 95 percentiles, respectively
Figure 3 shows the estimated 25th, 50th, 75th, and 95th percentiles of DP based on IPI scores. Although
we observed some items with a direct relationship (i.e., teachers with low scores on both the DP and the
IPI, and other educators with high scores on both the DP and the IPI), depersonalization and self-
perceived IPI showed a negative correlation in the four DP percentiles. Spearman's correlation
coefficient reported this correlation to be low but statistically significant, ρs = -.17, p-value = .002.
The relationship between depersonalization and self-perceived interpersonal intelligence among Ecuadorian higher education
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Note: figure 4. Depersonalization, self-reported interpersonal intelligence score and gender. The highlighted lines stand for the estimated
QR equations DP ~ IPI for the 25th, 50th, 75th, and 95th percentiles, respectively. Spearman correlation coefficients between
depersonalization and interpersonal intelligence across genders were ρ
s
= -.15, p-value = .07 for females and ρ
s
= -.20, p-value = .01 for
males.
When modeling DP as a function of IPI using quantile regressions, the estimated coefficients of IPI were
negative at an approximately constant rate. The slopes were equivalent in all percentile equations,
except for the median, where the IPI coefficient was the lowest. Even so, the IPI effect was statistically
relevant only for the first quantile (θ = 0.25).
Table 2.
QR estimated coefficients of the depersonalization (DP) equation as a function of the self-
perceived interpersonal intelligence (IPI) (25th, 50th, 75th, and 95th percentiles)
Estimator
훉
=.
ퟐퟓ
훉
=.
ퟐퟓ
훉
=.
ퟓퟎ
훉
=.
ퟓퟎ
훉
=.
ퟕퟓ
훉
=.
ퟕퟓ
훉
=.
ퟐퟓ
훉
=.
ퟐퟓ
IPI score
-.500
***
(.119)
-.410
(.298)
-.500
(.342)
-.500
(.925)
Constant
5.000
***
(1.062)
6.287
*
(2.692)
11.000
***
(3.170)
17.000
*
(7.807)
Note:
P-value < 0.001 (***), < 0.01 (**), < 0.05 (*), < 0.1 (.). Standard errors are given in parentheses.
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Regarding the gender effect, the quantile lines showed a similar behavior within each gender, except in
the 95th percentile equation. When comparing the two groups, the slopes of the quantile equation were
steeper for men, but the upper percentile was flatter than that of the opposite group. According to
Spearman correlations, men and women showed a negative relationship between DP and IPI, but only
men exhibited a statistically significant association (see Figure 4 and Table 4).
Table 3.
Differences between gender in depersonalization and interpersonal intelligence scores
Depersonalization
Interpersonal intelligence
Female
(F)
Male
(M)
Difference
F-M
Female
(F)
Male
(M)
Difference
F-M
휽
=.
ퟐퟓ
휽
=.
ퟐퟓ
.115
1.424
-1.308
**
8.059
8.001
.057
휽
=.
ퟓퟎ
휽
=.
ퟓퟎ
1.610
4.459
-2.849
***
9.108
9.029
.079
휽
=.
ퟕퟓ
휽
=.
ퟕퟓ
5.302
7.168
-1.865
**
10.000
9.999
.000
휽
=.
ퟗퟓ
휽
=.
ퟗퟓ
11.808
14.714
-2.905
10.000
10.000
.000
Min.
0
.000
0.100
5.000
Máx.
21.000
21.000
10.000
10.000
SD.
4.136
4.552
1.802
1.300
Skewness
1.853
1.157
-2.506
-1.022
Note:
P-value < 0.001 (***), < 0.01 (**), < 0.05 (*), < 0.1 (.). Differences between genders were computed through comparisons in the
25th, 50th, 75th and 95th percentiles. The null hypotheses for the percentile comparisons were θ
q1
= θ
q2
.
Furthermore, the range of DP was the same for both sexes, but men showed higher DP scores at different
percentiles. In fact, there were statistically significant differences within the quantiles, but not at the
95th percentile. Furthermore, Table 3 shows that the asymmetry in the DP scores was greater for women
than for men, that is, the levels higher DP were less common in the first group. Therefore, up to the 75th
percentile, women in the sample reported significantly lower DP scores than men.
On the other hand, IPI evaluations in women had a wider range and greater negative asymmetry, and
male teachers rated their IPI above five, showing a statistically insignificant difference in the four
percentiles analyzed. (See Table 3).
In Figure 4 gender showed an additive effect in the relationship between DP and IPI. Therefore, we
added gender as a covariate to the existing models in Table 2. As a result, the effect of IPI score on DP
decreased, but was still significant in the first two quantiles.
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According to the QR models, being male increased the first and second quantiles of DP by one and three
units, respectively. However, the estimated effect of gender on the third quantile of DP was negative,
but not significant. Furthermore, the equation for the 95th percentile was constant, suggesting that DP
was independent of gender and IPI at the highest levels of DP (see Table 4).
Table 4.
QR estimated coefficients of the depersonalization equation as a function of self-perceived
interpersonal intelligence (25th, 50th, and 95th percentiles), adding gender
Estimator
훉
=.
ퟐퟓ
훉
=.
ퟐퟓ
훉
=.
ퟓퟎ
훉
=.
ퟓ0
훉
=.
ퟕퟓ
훉
=.
ퟕퟓ
훉
=.
ퟐퟓ
훉
=.
ퟐퟓ
IPI score
-.303
**
(.103)
-.444
*
(.205)
-.107
(.353)
.000
(.904)
Gender = Male
1.000
**
(.385)
3.000
***
(.696)
1.892
(1.075)
3.000
(2.453)
Constant
3.030
**
(1.031)
5.444
**
(1.964)
6.075
(3.177)
11.000
(8.074)
Note:
P-value < 0.001 (***), < 0.01 (**), < 0.05 (*), < 0.1 (.). Standard errors are given in parentheses.
Discussion
The present research has explored the relationship between depersonalization and self-perceived
interpersonal intelligence among university educators, considering possible differences between
genders. The results suggested that DP and IPI scores were biased, as high DP levels and low IPI scores
were unusual in the sample. Even so, their overall correlation was negative and statistically significant
(ρs = -0.17**). However, compared to other studies relating DP and interpersonal dimensions in the
academic context, the correlation reported in this study was weaker.
Strong correlations were found between DP and teachers' interpersonal self-efficacy in classroom
management (-0.59***), obtaining support from colleagues (-0.44***) and principals (-0.31***). (20).
Furthermore, similar associations were concluded when relating depersonalization to a different
construct of teaching self-efficacy based on interpersonal interactions (-.38**), for the consideration of
effectiveness in the classroom and (-.21**), for organizational influence). (25). Furthermore, similar
results were reported when relating DP to interpersonal mindfulness (-.28*) (30).
We could attribute the weakness in the correlation coefficient found in this study to the influence of self-
perceived IPI since the scale used was a single item that depended on the teachers' perceptions. As
evidence, we found that 75% of educators in this research self-rated more than eight, making IPI scores
of less than five outliers. It is worth noting that these outlier IPI scores reported low DP, which argues
against the negative conceptual association. However, the presence of these outliers could have helped
accentuate the effect of IPI on DP levels in the first quantile regression (θ25 = -0.50***), where lower
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DP levels for higher scores IPI increases made sense (Maslach and Leiter, 2008). This is not the case for
the highest DP percentiles (θ50 = -0.41; θ75 = -0.50; θ95 = -0.50), where all IPI scores were above five.
Therefore, the negative association could not be confirmed to be statistically relevant.
These disparities could be supported by the argument of Yammarino and Atwater (46), who state that
self-ratings are often inaccurate, that is, they could differ from actual performance and the judgment of
others. Furthermore, our results would suggest optimistic interpersonal competence as perceived by
educators. However, in this study we cannot infer about the teachers' judgment behind their self-
evaluation, although some researchers have explained the reasons for an optimistic self-perception (46-
48), where selfishness is the main one (49). On the other hand, the discrepancy between atypical IPI
scores (less than five) and low DP levels may suggest negative states (e.g., depression) among these
educators (50, 51).
Regarding the mediating role of gender in the experience of depersonalization and interpersonal skills,
the literature reviewed shows statistical differences between genders in two dimensions, where female
teachers show lower levels of PD than male teachers at different educational levels (17-19).In addition,
it has been described that women’s interpersonal skills seem to be superior to those of men (22, 23, 57)
Our results support the difference between genders in the depersonalization facet, since the educators
showed statistically lower levels in all quantiles and even in the 95th percentile. However, the IPI scores
between genders had practically no difference, which raises the issue of the effect of gender on self-
perception.
In this sense, some studies have concluded that women underestimate more frequently than men due to
low self-perception (52), and higher performance expectations in men than in women (53). In this
research, teachers of both genders self-rated their IPI similarly high, which could be supported by each
expecting high performance from their gender (53-55). Women reported instances of low IPI scores,
while male teachers self-rated their interpersonal skills above five.
Contributions to the field statement
This study reveals a negative, but significant relationship between depersonalization and interpersonal
intelligence in Ecuadorian university professors, with findings that highlight notable gender
differences. It shows that, although men experience higher levels of depersonalization, the perception of
their own interpersonal intelligence tends to be optimistic in both genders. These results are
fundamental to inform intervention strategies and professional development in the educational field and
provide a solid basis for future research on the dynamics of stress and interpersonal skills in university
teaching.
Conclusions
This study showed the relationship between depersonalization and interpersonal intelligence. Gender
had an additive effect on this relationship as men experienced higher levels of depersonalization than
women. However, self-perception seemed to obscure the strength of the interest association, regardless
of gender. This research contributed to the study of the attitudinal importance of teachers in the
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performance of university students, where it is common to think that academic experience is sufficient
to perform adequately as an educator.
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Conflict of Interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial
relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Author Contributions
JAVF, ORB and IDCP participated in the conceptualization of the idea, supervising the methodology
and software. The rest of the authors participated in validation, formal analysis of the research, data
curation, and resources. All authors participated in writing, reviewing, editing, viewing and supervising
the prepared versions of the article. All authors have read and approved the final version of the
manuscript.
Ethical statement
The study was approved by the ESPOL ethics committee. Informed consent was obtained from all
participants. The confidentiality and anonymity of the participants' data was guaranteed. Specific tools
or instruments such as questionnaires or inventories (for example, the Maslach Burnout Inventory) were
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de publicación.
used, which are not protected by trademark. All procedures were in accordance with relevant
institutional ethical standards and nationally or internationally recognized ethical principles.
Funding
This research received no external funding.
Acknowledgments
This is a brief text to acknowledge the contributions of specific colleagues, institutions or agencies that
assisted the authors' efforts. The group of authors would like to extend special thanks to Vilma St. Omer
Navarro, Claudia Márquez-Pinoargote and Maria Elena Murrieta for her active and necessary
participation in the general organization of the project.