Burnout in child protective service workers: A longitudinal study

Abstract

AbstractChild protective service (CPS) workers experience working conditions that lead to burnout. Although theorists describe burnout as a phenomenon that develops over time, few studies have taken a longitudinal approach to describe its course. To test the hypotheses that (a) burnout remains the same across time, and that (b) environmental conditions are related to change in burnout, 64 CPS workers were followed over an average 18‐month period. All scales of the Maslach Burnout Inventory showed significantly increased burnout. Environmental factors measured by the Work Environment Scale and a Work Hassles scale significantly related to change in burnout with initial levels of burnout controlled (emotional exhaustion R2 = 0.465, depersonalization R2 = 0.432, personal accomplishment R2 = 0.431). Several methodological difficulties in previous longitudinal burnout studies were avoided: namely, only one type of job was used, all subjects remained in the same job across the follow‐up, and subjects were new to the position at the beginning of the study. Developmental models of Leiter and Maslach (1988) and Golembiewski and Munzenrider (1988) were discussed given the methodological issues raised and the results of the current study. The relation of environmental factors to changes in burnout are consistent with previous, non‐quantitative descriptions of the CPS job.