A Longitudinal Analysis of Burnout in the Health Care Setting: The Role of Personal Dispositions

Burnout is frequently interpreted as a situationally induced stress reaction. However, the long-term stability of burnout scores and their correlations with subjective well-being measures suggest that burnout may also reflect enduring qualities of the individual. To assess the contribution of personality to the experience of burnout, an exploratory longitudinal study was done. At Time 1,36 occupational therapists (32 women, 4 men) from two hospitals completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI; Maslach, 1982) and the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI; Costa & McCrae, 1985; a measure of the five-factor model of personality). At Time 2, the MBI was again given along with the Work Environment Scale (Moos, 1981) to 29 of the original therapists. Moderately strong correlations were found between burnout scores and measures of the five factors both concurrently and longitudinally. Even when situational variables were controlled, personality continued to account for a significant portion of the variance in burnout scores. The implications of these findings are discussed.