Burnout in Health Professionals According to Their Self-Esteem, Social Support and Empathy Profile

• Main Authors: María del Mar Molero Jurado, María del Carmen Pérez-Fuentes, José Jesús Gázquez Linares, Ana Belén Barragán Martín
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2018-04-01
• Series: Frontiers in Psychology
• Subjects: burnout; professional; empathy; healthcare; self-esteem; social support
• Online Access: http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00424/full

Introduction: Professionals in the healthcare field are in situations that could be a source of stress and sometimes develop burnout syndrome. Self-esteem, social support, and empathy are variables which intervene and influence the appearance of this syndrome.Objective: Identify healthcare professional profiles based on self-esteem, empathy and perceived social support, and analyze the extent to which these profiles show differences in developing burnout.Method: The sample was made up of 719 healthcare professionals with a mean of 38.52 years of age. The Short Questionnaire of Burnout, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the Perceived Social Support Questionnaire and the Basic Empathy Scale were used.Results: The results of a cluster analysis with self-esteem, empathy, and perceived social support showed four groups/profiles. Two of them, which included professionals with low self-esteem, differed in the rest of the characteristics. Furthermore, significant differences in burnout scores were found among the groups identified.Conclusion: The results show the need to study burnout with attention to individual and or social characteristics, where self-esteem is shown to be one of the explanatory variables making the main differences among the groups.