Social educators’ professional satisfaction: Influential factors

INTRODUCTION. The aim of this paper is to analyse the degree of self-perceived job satisfaction social educators have of their work and the factors that influence it. Firstly, it presents an introduction to the process of professional development of social education in Spain, as well as an analysis of the functions and fields of work in which it currently carries out its work. Also, it revises different studies on the concept of job satisfaction and its method of analysis, focusing especially on those related to social education and social services. METHOD. The methodology of the study is quantitative, with a descriptive approach. An ad hoc, online and self-administered questionnaire is used as an instrument. The sample is made up of 504 professionals from the seventeen Autonomous Communities of Spain and the city of Ceuta. The data are analysed with the SPSS software. RESULTS. The results show the general level of self-perceived job satisfaction and relate it to the variables of sex, age, years of experience, employment relationship, percentage of hiring time and work environment. A significant relationship is observed between self-perceived work satisfaction and the variables of years of experience, work relationship and percentage of the working day. A non-significant relationship is observed in the variables of sex, age and work environment. DISCUSSION. Subsequently, a discussion is established comparing the results obtained with those reviewed in previous works and conclusions are drawn. It should be taken into account that there are certain labour factors that influence the job satisfaction of social educators. Finally, the limitations of the work are explained, and proposals are made for future studies.