Music therapists’ job demands, job autonomy, social support, and their relationship with burnout and turnover intention

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the main and interaction effects of job demands, job autonomy, and social support on music therapists’ burnout and turnover intention. Data were collected from 163 music therapists who were members of the Korean Music Therapy Association or the National Association of Korean Music Therapists. Structural equation modeling analyses revealed that job demands had a positive main effect on burnout, whereas job autonomy and social support had negative main effects on burnout. The results also showed that job demands interacted with job autonomy in predicting turnover intention, while social support had a negative main effect on turnover intention. The present study contributes to the development of a more comprehensive understanding of music therapists’ job conditions and offers suggestion for redesigning their job requisites as well as improving job resources as a means to prevent and decrease burnout and turnover intention.