The literature review presented in this paper examined the available research in the area of the rapid burnout of beginning teachers (50 percent of America's beginning public school teachers leave the classroom within their first 7 years of experience and never return to the profession; more than two-thirds of that percentage do so within the first 4 years). Evidence, obtained from journal articles, research reports, and position papers, was categorized according to the following influencing factors: (1) teacher's relationship with students; (2) teacher's personality; (3) disruptive student behavior; (4) extreme workload; (5) negative school environment; (6) unclear expectations; (7) lack of participation in decision making; (8) deficient parental support; (9) shortage of teaching time; (10) poor university preparation; (11) low pay; (12) insufficient mentoring; (13) teacher's gender; (14) teacher's marital status; and (15) teacher's education level. Each printed item was examined for implications leading to methods of possible future prevention. No evidence of one clear-cut causal factor was identified in the studies reviewed; however, implications for the necessity of further research were indicated. (Contains 63 references.) (LL)