1. Chloe R. Foon and Dr. William M. Breland
Department of Psychology, University of Southern California
Confronting : The relations among health professional burnout,
neuroticism, empathy, and social and organizational support
• Burnout is a negative consequence of high workload in
a stress-filled environment
• Defined by the presence of three elements: emotional
exhaustion, depersonalization, and loss of personal
accomplishment
• Not limited to health professions
• Education, law enforcement, military, etc.
• Prevention of burnout remains critical among health
professionals to protect personal well-being and maintain
them as highly functioning professionals
• Previous research explored link between burnout and
neuroticism; social support yielded conflicting results
The investigation sought to clarify the self-protective
implications of the relations among burnout,
neuroticism, empathy, and social and organizational
support and to identify how neuroticism and empathy
may moderate the effects of social and organizational
support on burnout.
Introduction
Online Qualtrics Survey
1. Demographics
• Age, gender, ethnicity, current occupation, years in
current practice, primary language, location and
setting of practice
2. Questionnaires
• Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI)
• Emotional exhaustion (EE),
depersonalization (DP), and personal
accomplishment (PA)
• Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI)
• Empathic concern, fantasy, personal distress,
and perspective taking
• Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social
Support (MDSPSS)
• Significant other, family, and friends
• Perceived Organisational Support Scale
• Neuroticism items from Big Five Inventory
Measures
Health Professional Sample
• 120 participants (54% female, 64.2% Caucasian)
• Obtained through family network and American
Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting App
• Average age of 47.75 years
• Included a variety of occupations
• Psychiatrist, physician, therapist, etc.
• International reach: United States, Europe, Oceania,
Asia, and Canada
Participants
Hypothesis 1: Measurement Model (See Table 1)
• Varimax rotation of MBI: 4 factors, identified as
emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, reduced
sense of personal accomplishment, and
Hypothesis 2: Neuroticism and Burnout
• Demonstrated trend in predicting EE but did not
reach significance, β = .20, t(9) = 1.52, p = .132
• Demonstrated trend in predicting lethargy but did
not reach significance, β = .23, t(9) = 1.64, p = .106
Hypothesis 3: Empathy and Burnout
• Empathic concern: significant main effect using
one-tailed test in predicting DP, β = -.23, t(9) =
-1.67, p = .096, and lethargy, β = -.24, t(9) = -1.76, p
= .083
Hypothesis 4: Social/Organizational Support and
Burnout
• Social support was not significantly predictive of
burnout
• Organizational support: significant main effect in
predicting EE, β = -.42, t(9) = -3.84, p < .001, and
DP, β = -.25, t(9) = -2.24, p < .05
• Organizational support: demonstrated trend in
predicting lethargy but did not reach significance, β
= -.18, t(9) = -1.59, p = .117
Hypothesis 5: Moderation (See Figures)
• Predicted burnout over and above simple linear
regression of two predictors
Results
Hypothesis 1: The measurement model will confirm five
separate constructs—three dimensions of burnout, four
dimensions of empathy, three dimensions of social
support, organizational support, and neuroticism.
Hypothesis 2: Neuroticism is expected to be directly
related to burnout.
Hypothesis 3: Empathy is expected to be inversely
related to burnout.
Hypothesis 4: Health professionals with higher levels of
perceived social or organizational support will report less
burnout.
Hypothesis 5: The relationship of health professional
burnout to perceived social or organizational support will
be moderated by neuroticism and empathy.
Hypotheses
was identified as the fourth component of
burnout, in addition to the three Maslach dimensions
• Neuroticism was trending in the direction of the
hypothesis
• Empathic concern was negatively associated with
burnout
• Higher levels of perceived organizational support
predicted less burnout
• Social support conclusions were mixed and
inconclusive
• The interactions with dimensions of social support
from a significant other, family, and friends and
empathic concern revealed significance in predicting
the dimensions of burnout
• Low empathic concern group benefited from
social support in predicting less burnout
• Fantasy groups reported lower emotional exhaustion
with increasing organizational support
Limitations
• Small sample size (N = 120), nonrandom sample,
self-reported data, one-time survey
Future Direction
• Longitudinal studies, larger sample size, random
sample, further examination of fourth component of
burnout (lethargy)
Discussion