Burnout among social workers

Introduction: Burnout is increasingly prevalent mainly involving employees working in the social sphere. Objective: The aim of our study was to examine the complexity of burnout among social workers. Methods: Baseline demographic data were recorded. Burnout was assessed by the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), and the intensities of dysfunctional attitudes were also studied. Depression was detected by the abbreviated version of the Beck Depression Questionnaire, furthermore social supports and effort-reward imbalance were also examined. Results: Overall 300 employees participated in our study. Age group distribution was young/middle-aged access, the vast majority of the workers was between 25 and 45 years. The mean burnout scale was 53.9 (SD = 18.7), 105 workers had mild (35.1%), 182 moderate (60.6%) and 13 severe (4.3%) burnout. In a multivariate analysis, the female gender (OR: 5.857), the age (OR: 4.126), the years spent with working (OR: 2.721), the number of children (>3) (OR: 2.861) and the lack of social support (OR: 2.81) were independently associated with burnout (p<0.05 in all cases). There was a significant association among burnout, depression and dysfunctional attitudes. Conclusion: The vast majority of our social workers suffered from moderate and a small, but a significant proportion from severe burnout. Our work draws attention to the modifiable and unmodifiable risk factors of burnout in this population, which may help in the development of preventive strategies.