Burnout Measure

Description

This measure, (Burnout Measure) developed by Pines and Aronson (1988), assesses physical and emotional states by asking respondents to rate how frequently they experience 21 stress-related occurrences. The Burnout Measure focuses on exhaustion, shown to be a central aspect of burnout. The Burnout Measure is considered the second most widely used burnout measure after the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI; Etzion, Eden, & Lapidot, 1998). It is considered the better of the two measures for use outside the human service professions, because the MBI focuses on burnout of professionals who work with people (Westman & Eden, 1997). The Burnout Measure has also been translated into Hebrew (Etzion et al., 1998).

Reliability

Coefficient alpha values ranged from .88 to .95 (Cropanzano et al., 1997; Etzion et al., 1998; Melamed, Kushnir, & Meir, 1991; Schaufeli & Van Dierendonck, 1993; Westman & Eden, 1997).

Validity

The Burnout Measure correlated negatively with job satisfaction, perceived control at work, and social support. Burnout correlated positively with job de­mands and the presence of job stressors (Etzion et al., 1998; Melamed et al., 1991). Westman and Eden (1997) factor analyzed the Burnout Measure and found that it is unidimensional. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the Burnout Measure measures the affective nature of burnout, which is often expressed as exhaustion (Schaufeli & Van Dierendonck, 1993).

Source

Pines, A., & Aronson, E. (1988) Career burnout: Causes and cures. New York: Free Press. Copyright© 1988 by Ayala M. Pines and Elliot Aronson. Items from text (p. 219) were adapted with the permission of The Free Press, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Items

Responses are obtained on a 7-point Likert-type scale where 1 = never, 2 = once in a great while, 3 = rarely, 4=sometimes, 5 =often, 6= usually, and 7 = always.

1. Being tired
2. Being weary
3. Feeling depressed
4. Being troubled
5. Having a good day
6. Feeling disillusioned and
7. Being physically exhausted resentful
8. Being emotionally exhausted
9. Being weak and susceptible
10. Being happy to illness
11. Being “wiped out”
12. Feeling hopeless
13. “Can’t take it anymore”
14. Feeling rejected
15. Being unhappy
16. Feeling optimistic
17. Feeling run-down
18. Feeling energetic
19. Feeling trapped
20. Feeling anxious
21. Feeling worthless