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Social Support, Personality, and Burnout in Nurses
Author(s) -
Eastburg Mark C.,
Williamson Mike,
Gorsuch Richard,
Ridley Charles
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.1994.tb00556.x
Subject(s) - burnout , extraversion and introversion , psychology , personality , social support , emotional exhaustion , clinical psychology , scale (ratio) , distress , big five personality traits , social psychology , physics , quantum mechanics
This study sought to find evidence for: (a) a relationship between increased levels of work‐related social support and decreased burnout, (b) a relationship between personality traits and burnout, and (c) a significant interaction of social support and extraversion in relation to burnout. Seventy‐six staff nurses and their supervisors at a private medical hospital participated as subjects. Two subscales of the Work Environment Scale measured social support. Personality was measured using an instrument known as PROSCAN, and Scale H of the 16PF. Burnout was measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory. A strong negative correlation between work‐related social support and burnout was found. Also, nurses whose supervisors received positive‐feedback training showed significant reductions in emotional exhaustion, compared to those whose supervisors did not receive this training. Some dimensions of personality explained a significant amount of burnout. The study also provided further evidence of the interactive effect of social support and extraversion in relation to an emotional distress variable. That is, extraverted nurses required more work‐related peer support than did introverts to avoid emotional exhaustion. Suggestions for further research are given.