Burnout Disrupts Anxiety Buffer Functioning Among Nurses: A Three-Way Interaction Model.

Elena Trifiletti,Sabrina Berlanda,Monica Pedrazza,Tom Pyszczynski

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01362

Elena Trifiletti, Sabrina Berlanda + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01362

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Abstract

Over the last 40 years, job burnout has attracted a great deal of attention among researchers and practitioners and, after decades of research and interventions, it is still regarded as an important issue. With the aim of extending the Anxiety Buffer Disruption Theory (ABDT), in this paper we argue that high levels of burnout may disrupt the anxiety buffer functioning that protects people from death concerns. ABDT was developed from Terror Management Theory (TMT). According to TMT, reminders of one’s mortality are an essential part of humans’ daily experience and have the potential to awake paralyzing fear and anxiety. In order to cope with death concerns, people typically activate an anxiety-buffering system centered on their cultural worldview and self-esteem. Recent ABDT research shows that individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder are unable to activate such anxiety buffering defenses. In line with these results, we hypothesized that the burnout syndrome may have similar effects, and that individuals with higher levels of burnout will be less likely to activate an anxiety buffering response when their mortality is made salient. Participants were 418 nurses, who completed a questionnaire including: a mortality salience (MS) manipulation, a delay manipulation, and measures of burnout, work-related self-efficacy, and representation of oneself as a valuable caregiver. Nurses are daily exposed both to the risk of burnout and to mortality reminders, and thus constituted an ideal population for this study. In line with an anxiety buffer disruption hypothesis, we found a significant three-way interaction between burnout, MS and delay. Participants with lower levels of burnout reported higher levels of self-efficacy and a more positive representation as caregivers in the MS condition compared to the control condition, when there was a delay between MS manipulation and the assessment of the dependent measures. The difference was non-significant for participants with higher levels of burnout. Theoretical and practical implications of findings are discussed.

Highlights

Burnout has been a phenomenon of significant interest over the last 40 years and it continues to attract much attention both as a research topic and a social issue
A recent development of Terror Management Theory (TMT), the Anxiety Buffer Disruption Theory (ABDT; Pyszczynski and Kesebir, 2011), posits that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD; American Psychiatric Association, 2013) entails a disruption of these anxiety-buffering mechanisms, leaving individuals affected by PTSD vulnerable to death anxiety and to anxiety in general
We argue that a similar effect occurs for individuals who experience higher levels of job burnout

Summary

Introduction

Burnout has been a phenomenon of significant interest over the last 40 years and it continues to attract much attention both as a research topic and a social issue. Researchers have devoted their attention to the study of its nature and consequences (Schaufeli et al, 2009). A recent development of TMT, the Anxiety Buffer Disruption Theory (ABDT; Pyszczynski and Kesebir, 2011), posits that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD; American Psychiatric Association, 2013) entails a disruption of these anxiety-buffering mechanisms, leaving individuals affected by PTSD vulnerable to death anxiety and to anxiety in general. We argue that a similar effect occurs for individuals who experience higher levels of job burnout. As a consequence of prolonged exposure to stressors on the job, people with higher levels of burnout are expected to cope less effectively with death reminders, compared to people with lower levels of burnout

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