Abstract
This longitudinal research examined the relationship direction between burnout components (exhaustion and disengagement) within the context of personal resources measured by self-efficacy and social support. In line with the conservation of resources theory we hypothesized that exhaustion may trigger a spiral loss of personal resources where self-efficacy declines and subsequently, social support also declines and in turn predict disengagement. Participants in Study 1 were mental healthcare providers (N = 135) working with U.S. military personnel suffering from trauma. Participants in Study 2 were healthcare providers, social workers, and other human services professionals (N = 193) providing various types of services for civilian trauma survivors in Poland. Baseline and 6-month follow-up measurements included burnout components, burnout self-efficacy and perceived social support. The path analysis showed consistent results for both longitudinal studies; exhaustion measured at Time 1 led to disengagement at Time 2, after controlling for baseline disengagement levels. Across Study 1 and Study 2 these associations were mediated by self-efficacy change: Higher exhaustion led to greater decline in self-efficacy which in turn explained higher disengagement at the follow-up. Social support, however, did not mediate between self-efficacy and disengagement. These mediating effects were invariant across Studies 1 and 2, although the mean levels of burnout and personal resources differed significantly. The results contribute to a discussion on the internal structure of job burnout and a broader understanding of the associations between exhaustion and disengagement that may be explained by the underlying mechanism of change in self-efficacy.
Highlights
Job burnout is recognized as one of the key consequences of job stress (Maslach et al, 2001)
We found one longitudinal study confirming that emotional exhaustion has an effect on self-efficacy and that self-efficacy may mediate the relationship between exhaustion and other burnout components (Brouwers and Tomic, 2000)
Attrition analyses showed that dropouts had significantly higher disengagement at Time 1 (T1) than did completers, t(292) = 2.51, p = 0.01, and completers were significantly older than dropouts, t(288) = 2.17, p = 0.03
Summary
Job burnout is recognized as one of the key consequences of job stress (Maslach et al, 2001). Its high prevalence was demonstrated across occupational groups of human services workers, reaching up to 67% for burnout in a community of mental health workers (Morse et al, 2012). Predictors of burnout and co-occurring mental health problems have been thoroughly investigated (Maslach and Leiter, 2008; Leiter et al, 2013; Cieslak et al, 2014). From Exhaustion to Disengagement the causal relationships among burnout components (Taris et al, 2005). Our study aims to fill this gap by examining the effects of exhaustion on disengagement, two core components of burnout. The effects of exhaustion on disengagement will be evaluated further in the context of potential indirect pathways through personal resources (via self-efficacy and social support; Schwarzer and Knoll, 2007)
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