Abstract
In the last 20 years, amid extensive social and economic reforms, China’s social structure and community life have changed considerably. A large number of social workers are needed to provide many more social services to community residents. The central government has issued many policies to rapidly develop human service organizations and increase the number of social workers. Thus, by the end of 2019, the number of social workers has reached more than 1.5 million in China. At the same time, local governments have issued many policies to promote an increase in the number of social workers. According to statistics from the Chengdu Civil Affairs Bureau, from 2010 to 2021, the number of social workers in Chengdu City increased, remarkably, from 553 to 17,622. Although the number of social workers has increased rapidly, some problems still exist. According to a survey by the Chengdu Social Workers Association, the turnover rate of social workers has reached approximately 20% in Chengdu City in 2018. Therefore, we aim to determine what influences social workers’ job burnout. Through regression analysis and mediation effect tests, we found the following: First, when controlling for gender, age, education, and workday, social support of social workers had a significant negative impact on job burnout ( = − 0.376). Second, the mindfulness of social workers had a significant negative impact on job burnout ( = − 0.320). Third, the mindfulness of social workers played a mediating role between social support and job burnout. The mediating effect was −0.116 (p < 0.001). Fourth, among the three dimensions of social support, mindfulness played a partially mediating role in family support and other support. The mediating effect between other support, which is the support from leaders and colleagues, and job burnout was the strongest, with a mediating effect of −0.109 (p < 0.001). In other words, the support provided by agency leaders and colleagues can maximize the level of mindfulness of social workers, thereby reducing social workers’ job burnout most effectively. We can thus reduce social workers’ job burnout by improving their level of mindfulness and the social support for them in China.
Highlights
In recent decades, a lot of studies have discussed the stress, burnout, and turnover rate of helping professions (Lloyd et al, 2002; Pang et al, 2010; Yang et al, 2017; Jiang et al, 2019; Wang et al, 2021)
This study examined how social support and different dimensions were related to job burnout and whether these relations were mediated by mindfulness in social workers
The results showed that the high level of social support received by social workers was correlated with a low level of job burnout (β = − 0.376), which was consistent with previous research results (Qiao, 2019)
Summary
A lot of studies have discussed the stress, burnout, and turnover rate of helping professions (Lloyd et al, 2002; Pang et al, 2010; Yang et al, 2017; Jiang et al, 2019; Wang et al, 2021). Despite the rapid development of the current social work industry, social workers in China still face a high turnover rate and job burnout (Jiang and Wang, 2016; Wang et al, 2019). Little research examines the factors affecting job burnout of Chinese social workers (Huang et al, 2021). This study focuses on support-related factors that contribute to and protect against job burnout in a sample of Chinese social workers from Chengdu, China. The results of this study can further enrich the research on factors affecting job burnout, and can further alleviate job burnout among Chinese social workers and promote the sustainable and stable development of the Chinese social work industry
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