Psychological Predictors of Professional Burnout among Priests, Religious Brothers, and Religious Sisters in Italy: The Dark Triad versus the Bright Trinity?

Leslie J Francis,Giuseppe Crea

doi:10.1007/s11089-021-00951-8

Leslie J Francis, Giuseppe Crea

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-021-00951-8

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Abstract

Drawing on data provided by 287 Catholic priests, religious brothers, and religious sisters from different parts of Italy (130 men and 157 women), this study explored the effect of three dark psychological variables and three bright psychological variables on levels of professional burnout as assessed by the two scales of the Francis Burnout Inventory (emotional exhaustion and satisfaction in ministry). The three dark psychological variables assessed by the Short Dark Triad were Machiavellianism, subclinical narcissism, and subclinical psychopathy. The three bright psychological variables were purpose in life, emotional intelligence, and religious faith. After controlling for personal factors (age and sex) and personality factors (extraversion and emotionality), the data demonstrated that the three bright psychological factors (purpose in life, emotional intelligence, and religious faith) served as independent and cumulative predictors of higher levels of satisfaction in ministry and that the three dark psychological factors had no effect on satisfaction in ministry. Two of the three dark psychological factors (Machiavellianism, and subclinical psychopathy) served as independent and cumulative predictors of higher levels of emotional exhaustion in ministry, and purpose in life served as a predictor of lower levels of emotional exhaustion in ministry.

Highlights

A growing body of empirical research has been concerned to assess levels of burnout experienced by clergy and religious professionals, using either the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach & Jackson, 1985) or the Francis Burnout Inventory (Francis et al, 2005)
The present study focuses first on the potential impact of the cluster of three dark psychological factors recently conceptualized as the ‘dark triad.’
The study introduces the new concept of the ‘bright trinity,’ a cluster of three bright psychological factors already identified within the field of clergy studies

Summary

Introduction

A growing body of empirical research has been concerned to assess levels of burnout experienced by clergy and religious professionals, using either the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach & Jackson, 1985) or the Francis Burnout Inventory (Francis et al, 2005). As well as mapping the levels of burnout experienced by clergy and religious professionals, this growing body of literature has been concerned to identify and to map the predictor variables of individual difference in levels of experienced burnout (see Francis, 2018). In this context, four main categories of predictor variable have been documented: personal factors, personality factors, contextual factors, and psychological factors. Subclinical narcissism characterized by grandiosity, entitlement, dominance, and superiority, was shaped by Raskin and Hall’s (1979) delineation of a subclinical version of the DSM-defined personality disorder They developed the 40-item Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) on large samples of students. Their notion of subclinical narcissism has been well supported by a strong research literature (Morf & Rhodewalt, 2001a)

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