Perceived Stress and Burnout

[摘要] Background: Stress and burnout are among the common causes of absenteeism and fluctu -ation of staff in European workplaces. Therefore, the demand for understanding the predictorsof burnout in high risk professions has been growing. The aim of this study is to explore thelink between perceived stress and the three dimensions of burnout (emotional exhaustion,depersonalization, and personal accomplishment) while considering the potential mediatingrole of self-care and job satisfaction that may prevent the transformation of stress into burnout.Methods: A randomly selected group of Slovak social service professionals (N = 689; 618women) from institutions in 8 districts in Slovakia described their levels of perceived stress,burnout, performed self-care and job satisfaction in self-reported questionnaires.Results: The relationship between stress and emotional exhaustion is solely mediated by certain aspects of job satisfaction: salary, nature of work, and operating procedures. The relationship between stress and depersonalization is mediated by the nature of work, psychologicalself-care, and professional self-care. However, professional self-care does not prevent butrather facilitates the development of depersonalization in times of high perceived stress. Therelationship between stress and personal accomplishment is mediated by psychological andprofessional self-care as well as by three factors of job satisfaction: co-workers, nature ofwork and job benefits. When stress increases, satisfaction with co-workers and nature of workprevent the decrease of personal accomplishment. However, job benefits, with increasingstress, may be related to a decrease in personal accomplishment at work.Conclusion: Satisfaction with salary, nature of work, operating procedures and co-workersas well as psychological self-care may prevent the further development of burnout in timesof high stress. Yet, professional self-care and job benefits may, in times of increased stress,potentially lead towards specific aspects of burnout (depersonalization and reduction of personal accomplishment).

[学科分类] 基础医学

[关键词] stress;burnout;job satisfaction;self-care;helping profession;social service;mentalhealth