The Relationship between Mindfulness and Burnout among Master of Social Work Students

Social work students frequently endure elevated levels of prolonged stress and psychological affliction that might result in serious consequences, such as development of burnout. Some experts suggest that burnout originates in the exposure to chronic interpersonal stressors in the work environment....

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Main Author: Piatkowska, Jolanta Maria
Format: Others
Published: PDXScholar 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/1962
https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2962&context=open_access_etds
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spelling ndltd-pdx.edu-oai-pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu-open_access_etds-29622019-10-20T04:51:12Z The Relationship between Mindfulness and Burnout among Master of Social Work Students Piatkowska, Jolanta Maria Social work students frequently endure elevated levels of prolonged stress and psychological affliction that might result in serious consequences, such as development of burnout. Some experts suggest that burnout originates in the exposure to chronic interpersonal stressors in the work environment. Yet, there is emerging evidence suggesting that mindfulness practice might be beneficial in alleviating stress. Thus, the purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the relationship between mindfulness and burnout among Master of Social Work students. Burnout, mindfulness, religiosity, spirituality and their potential relationship were discussed and related to previous scholarly literature. Specifically, this study focused on testing the hypothesis that current MSW students who demonstrate higher levels of mindfulness will report less burnout, regardless of the year in the MSW program and regardless of the years of practice in human services. In addition, the hypothesis that students currently involved in direct social work practice (either outside of the MSW program, in the MSW field placement, or both) experience higher levels of burnout than students not yet practicing was scrutinized. Moreover, the hypothesis that as students progress in their studies they will exhibit progressively more burnout was explored. Finally, one of this study's goals was to explore whether patterns/relationships between the religious and spiritual beliefs and practices predict burnout levels among Master of Social Work students. Participants were mostly non-Hispanic White females, with a mean age of 35, married (or in legally recognized unions), and first year students enrolled full-time in the Direct Human Services track. Two years was the most common length of their experience in human services. They came from the metropolitan Portland area (on-campus students) and other regions of Oregon (off-site students). The mindfulness of the participants was measured with the Five Facets Mindfulness Scale and the levels of their burnout with the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Study results indicated that the more mindful the MSW students were, the less burnout they reported experiencing. A large correlation of mindfulness to reduced burnout (p < .001) was found, a relationship that persisted when controlling for other significant variables through sequential regression analysis. However, neither year in the MSW program, length of practicing in human services, nor religious/spiritual affiliation and practices had any significant influence on burnout among participants. Given the results of this study demonstrated statistically significant relationships between mindfulness and burnout among social work students, it is recommended that appropriate training in mindfulness for the students (and social workers) affected by secondary trauma and burnout should be incorporated in social work education, either as a part of curricula, or in an extra-curricular training program. 2014-09-02T07:00:00Z text application/pdf https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/1962 https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2962&amp;context=open_access_etds Dissertations and Theses PDXScholar Burn out (Psychology) Mindfulness (Psychology) Social service -- Students Health Psychology Social Work
collection NDLTD
format Others
sources NDLTD
topic Burn out (Psychology)
Mindfulness (Psychology)
Social service -- Students
Health Psychology
Social Work
spellingShingle Burn out (Psychology)
Mindfulness (Psychology)
Social service -- Students
Health Psychology
Social Work
Piatkowska, Jolanta Maria
The Relationship between Mindfulness and Burnout among Master of Social Work Students
description Social work students frequently endure elevated levels of prolonged stress and psychological affliction that might result in serious consequences, such as development of burnout. Some experts suggest that burnout originates in the exposure to chronic interpersonal stressors in the work environment. Yet, there is emerging evidence suggesting that mindfulness practice might be beneficial in alleviating stress. Thus, the purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the relationship between mindfulness and burnout among Master of Social Work students. Burnout, mindfulness, religiosity, spirituality and their potential relationship were discussed and related to previous scholarly literature. Specifically, this study focused on testing the hypothesis that current MSW students who demonstrate higher levels of mindfulness will report less burnout, regardless of the year in the MSW program and regardless of the years of practice in human services. In addition, the hypothesis that students currently involved in direct social work practice (either outside of the MSW program, in the MSW field placement, or both) experience higher levels of burnout than students not yet practicing was scrutinized. Moreover, the hypothesis that as students progress in their studies they will exhibit progressively more burnout was explored. Finally, one of this study's goals was to explore whether patterns/relationships between the religious and spiritual beliefs and practices predict burnout levels among Master of Social Work students. Participants were mostly non-Hispanic White females, with a mean age of 35, married (or in legally recognized unions), and first year students enrolled full-time in the Direct Human Services track. Two years was the most common length of their experience in human services. They came from the metropolitan Portland area (on-campus students) and other regions of Oregon (off-site students). The mindfulness of the participants was measured with the Five Facets Mindfulness Scale and the levels of their burnout with the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Study results indicated that the more mindful the MSW students were, the less burnout they reported experiencing. A large correlation of mindfulness to reduced burnout (p < .001) was found, a relationship that persisted when controlling for other significant variables through sequential regression analysis. However, neither year in the MSW program, length of practicing in human services, nor religious/spiritual affiliation and practices had any significant influence on burnout among participants. Given the results of this study demonstrated statistically significant relationships between mindfulness and burnout among social work students, it is recommended that appropriate training in mindfulness for the students (and social workers) affected by secondary trauma and burnout should be incorporated in social work education, either as a part of curricula, or in an extra-curricular training program.
author Piatkowska, Jolanta Maria
author_facet Piatkowska, Jolanta Maria
author_sort Piatkowska, Jolanta Maria
title The Relationship between Mindfulness and Burnout among Master of Social Work Students
title_short The Relationship between Mindfulness and Burnout among Master of Social Work Students
title_full The Relationship between Mindfulness and Burnout among Master of Social Work Students
title_fullStr The Relationship between Mindfulness and Burnout among Master of Social Work Students
title_full_unstemmed The Relationship between Mindfulness and Burnout among Master of Social Work Students
title_sort relationship between mindfulness and burnout among master of social work students
publisher PDXScholar
publishDate 2014
url https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/1962
https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2962&amp;context=open_access_etds
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