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The Relationships Between Individual Characteristics, Work Factors, and Emotional Labor Strategies in the Prediction of Burnout among Mental Health Service Providers

Year: 2012
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Relatively few empirical studies in the professional burnout literature have examined mental health providers (MHPs). Research on other professional groups has demonstrated that certain emotion regulation strategies, known as emotional labor (i.e., deep acting and surface acting), are common responses to perceived display rules (i.e., professional guidelines for emotional expression), and are differentially associated with burnout. The present study aimed to fill a gap in the literature by evaluating the empirical links between work stressors (i.e., role conflict, role ambiguity, and lack of autonomy), personality (i.e., extraversion), emotional labor (i.e., surface acting and deep acting), and burnout in a sample of MHPs. Additional variables (i.e., perceived emotional display rules, client characteristics, etc.) were also explored. Data from an online survey of 188 MHPs working in Florida was analyzed using multivariate and univariate regressions. The results of this study supported several of the hypothesized relationships between predictor variables and burnout. Most notably, extraversion, role conflict, role ambiguity, autonomy, and surface acting were significantly associated with one or more dimensions of burnout. Support was not found for extraversion as a moderator of the relationships between work stressors and burnout or between work stressors and emotional labor strategies. The effects of emotional labor strategies as mediators of the relationships between work stressors and burnout were not statistically significant. Implications and limitations of the findings, as well as suggestions for future research, are discussed.
Language: English
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1567192538
Cites: 296
Cited by: 7
Related to: 10