[Effects of perception of client relationship on burnout among human service professionals].

The main purpose of this study was to investigate perception of client relationship by human service professionals and its possible relationship with burnout. One hundred sixty-five (165) human service professionals, nurses and careworkers, completed a questionnaire. Results indicated that they typically rated their relationship with clients to be better than the average, and thus showing an enhancement tendency in their perception. In addition, regression analysis showed that the main effects of positive evaluation of themselves and clients were found on burnout, but not on psychological stress reaction. Furthermore, positive client evaluation had a buffering effect on depersonalization in cases of interpersonal conflict with clients. These results suggested that perception of close relationship with clients was one of the most important factors for preventing burnout of human service professionals.

[Effects of emotion work on burnout and stress among human service professionals].

This study examined the relationship between emotion work (Zapf, 2002) and burnout. One hundred and eighty-two human service professionals (nurses and caregivers) completed questionnaires. A factor analysis revealed that the concept of emotion work had four main factors: "Negative emotions display", "Positive emotions display", "Emotional dissonance", and "Sensitivity requirements". In addition, the hierarchical regression analyses revealed only the main effect of "Emotional dissonance" on psychological stress reaction, whereas the main effects of all emotion work variables and two interaction effects of those on burnout. These results suggested that burnout was distinguished from psychological stress reaction by the differences in its relationship to emotion work.

[Validation of a Japanese research version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey].

The purpose of this study was to validate Japanese research version of Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (MBI-GS), a newly developed measure intended for persons of every occupation. The Japanese MBI-GS was administered to a sample of hospital workers. Exploratory factor analysis found three factors, as in original MBI-GS. Confirmatory factor analysis largely supported MBI-GS structure of three subscales, but the correlation between two subscales was unexpectedly high. To examine its construct validity, the subscale scores were then examined in relation to selected work characteristics. Conservation of resources theory was successful in its predictions of different patterns of effects among the correlates and three burnout subscales. The successful predictions suggested that meaning of each subscale was quite distinct. In all, our examination showed that Japanese MBI-GS assessed the same three dimensions as the original measure for human service workers.