Burnout, Depression, and Borderline Personality: A 1,163-Participant Study

Towards a new approach to job-related distress: A three-sample study of the Occupational Depression Inventory

The Occupational Depression Inventory (ODI) was recently developed to assess depressive symptoms that individuals specifically attribute to their work. One purpose of the ODI is to respond to limitations of current assessments of job-related distress, most notably, assessments relying on the burnout construct. In this study, we conducted a thorough examination of the psychometric and structural properties of the ODI using exploratory structural equation modelling bifactor analysis and Mokken scale analysis. The study involved three samples of employed individuals, recruited in France (N = 3454), Switzerland (N = 1971), and Australia (N = 1485). Results were consistent across the three samples. The ODI exhibited essential unidimensionality and excellent total-score reliability-as indexed by McDonald's omega, Cronbach's alpha, Guttman's lambda-2, and the Molenaar-Sijtsma statistic. We found evidence for measurement invariance across sexes, age groups, and samples. Mokken scale analysis revealed that the ODI's scalability was strong. No monotonicity violation was detected. Invariant item ordering showed sufficient accuracy. In all three samples, suicidal ideation was the least commonly endorsed item-thus acting as a sentinel item-and fatigue/loss of energy was the most commonly endorsed item. The ODI exhibits excellent psychometric and structural properties, suggesting that occupational health specialists can effectively employ the instrument.

Just try it: Preliminary results of a six-month therapy for borderline personality disorder

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is labeled as a personality disorder with impulsivity issues regarding relationships, risky behavior, and emotional dysregulation. This personality disorder is still considered to be hard-to-treat condition even though responses to treatment have improved significantly. In this field, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy is recognized as one of the most efficient therapeutical approaches, and some versions adapted from this gold-standard treatment proved their effectiveness in clinical settings. We tested the 6-month cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) protocol ECCCLORE, composed of three modules, respectively, working on emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and relationships-in a French context to compare its effectiveness to Treatment As Usual. We recruited 56 patients with a BPD diagnosis in a day-care unit, 34 receiving ECCCLORE and 22 receiving TAU. We assessed BPD traits, impulsivity, aggressiveness, suicidal risk, and hopelessness. Our results revealed the effectiveness of the 6-month ECCCLORE protocol to decrease BPD symptoms and associated clinical dimensions. We also noted the persistence of its effect after a 1-year follow-up. Shortened CBT treatment protocols tend to prove their efficiency for symptom reduction in BPD. Further research is needed to replicate these results.

Burned-out with burnout? Insights from historical analysis

Fierce debates surround the conceptualization and measurement of job-related distress in occupational health science. The use of burnout as an index of job-related distress, though commonplace, has increasingly been called into question. In this paper, we first highlight foundational problems that undermine the burnout construct and its legacy measure, the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). Next, we report on advances in research on job-related distress that depart from the use of the burnout construct. Tracing the genesis of the burnout construct, we observe that (a) burnout's definition was preestablished rather than derived from a rigorous research process and (b) the MBI has little in the way of a theoretical or empirical foundation. Historical analysis suggests that the burnout construct was cobbled together from unchallenged personal impressions and anecdotal evidence before getting reified by the MBI. This state of affairs may account for many of the disconcerting problems encountered in burnout research. We close our paper by presenting the Occupational Depression Inventory (ODI), a recently developed instrument reflective of a renewed approach to job-related distress. The ODI has demonstrated robust psychometric and structural properties across countries, sexes, age groups, occupations, and languages. The instrument addresses job-related distress both dimensionally and categorically. A dimensional approach can be useful, for instance, in examining the dynamics of etiological processes and symptom development. A categorical approach can serve screening and diagnostic purposes and help clinicians and public health professionals in their decision-making. It is concluded that the ODI offers occupational health specialists a promising way forward.

Are human resource managers with good listening competency more likely to avoid job burnout?

BACKGROUND

Listening is an important responsibilities of human resource managers, whether it will bring role stress to human resource managers, or lead to the risk of job burnout. This study aims to analyze the impact of listening competency on job burnout among human resource managers, and examine the mediating effect of role stress.

METHODS

This study adopted a cross-sectional method to randomly select 500 human resource managers from China's top ten human resource management cities to conduct an online questionnaire survey, and 232 valid samples were obtained. Descriptive statistical and one-way ANOVA were used to explore the status of job burnout among human resource managers in China. Correlation analysis, multiple linear regression and mediating effect analysis were employed to test the relationship between listening competency and job burnout, as well as the mediating effect of role stress.

RESULTS

(1) 34.5% of the respondents reported mild burnout, while 3.0% respondents showed serious burnout. Emotional exhaustion was the most serious. (2) Those are good at listening could easily avoid job burnout. Among them, listening skills were conducive to reducing the degree of depersonalization of human resource managers, and empathy was more conducive to improving their personal sense of accomplishment. (3) The role stress had a significant mediating role in the relationship between listening competency and job burnout. Which means that listening competency can avoid job burnout by reducing role stress of human resource managers.

CONCLUSIONS

This study revealed the current situation of job burnout among human resource managers in China, and explored the influence of listening competency on job burnout. This study enriched the research content of job burnout, and provided references for preventing and intervening job burnout of human resource managers.

Pathological traits and adaptability as predictors of engagement, job satisfaction, burnout and workaholism

Abstract This study aimed to test the predictive capacity of pathological traits of personality and career adaptability on four constructs that compose the well-being at work: work engagement, job satisfaction, burnout, and workaholism. A total of 204 Brazilian working adults (M age = 34.02, SD = 10.39) participated in the study, which responded to scales measuring pathological traits, career adaptability resources, and well-being components at work. Our findings indicate that pathological traits are, in general, negatively related to job satisfaction and work engagement and positively associated with burnout and workaholism. After the insertion of career adaptability, there was an increase in most of the models' explanation. The contribution of adaptability was significant only for job satisfaction prediction.

An Empirical Investigation of the Relationship Between Spirituality, Work Culture, and Burnout: The Need for an Extended Health and Disease Model

Apart from biological, psychological, and social factors, recent studies indicate that spirituality and work culture also play an important role in the onset of burnout. Hence, the commonly applied bio-psycho-social model of health and disease might not be sufficient to comprehensively explain and describe burnout. This study empirically investigates the relationship between spirituality (operationalized by perceived meaningfulness of work) and work culture (operationalized by sense of homeliness of the working environment) with burnout risk and work engagement. For this purpose, an anonymous cross-sectional data collection with fully standardized questionnaires and selected socio-demographic and work-related items was conducted among working adults (n = 439) from different industries via social media and local health service centers. For all scales and subscales, we found significant moderate to strong correlations. Furthermore, positive meaning within the perceived meaningfulness of work scale was the largest beta coefficient for burnout (β = -0.65) and work engagement (β = 0.62). Within sense of homeliness, the largest beta coefficient for burnout was needs fulfillment (β = -0.34) and work engagement emotional connection (β = 0.36). The strong associations suggest that the current health and disease model needs to be expanded to a bio-psycho-socio-spirito-cultural model to be able to sufficiently describe burnout. The perceived meaningfulness of work and a sense of homeliness should be adequately considered when examining the onset of burnout, describing burnout as a concept, and explaining work engagement.

Comparing impulsivity in borderline personality, schizophrenia and obsessional-compulsive disorders: Who is ahead?

OBJECTIVE

Impulsivity impacts life domains and in a psychiatric context is often associated with disorders severity and stigmatization. Borderline personality disorder's (BPD), Schizophrenic disorder's (SZD), and obsessional compulsive disorder's (OCD) impulsivity issues relate to worse prognosis. This study aims to compare these disorders assessing their proneness to impulsivity and urgency.

METHODS

We recruited 90 patients among them OCD (n = 25), SZD (n = 23), and BPD (n = 50), and 24 healthy control participants (HC). We assessed the diagnosis according and measured the impulsivity level.

RESULTS

Our results showed that BPD was significantly more impulsive than HC, SZD, and OCD. HC, SZD, and OCD being equivalent on their global Urgency-Premeditation-Perseverance-Sensation seeking scores. For urgency, BPD was also superior to others, OCD was superior to HC, but SZD and HC were equivalent. The urgency was correlated to SZD's scale for SZD, no link appeared between borderline personality questionnaire and Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale's score.

CONCLUSION

These results question the existent literature relating impulsivity and SZD.

Is Burnout Primarily Linked to Work-Situated Factors? A Relative Weight Analytic Study

It has often been asserted that burnout is primarily linked to occupational-context factors, and only secondarily to individual-level (e.g., personality) and non-work (or general) factors. We evaluated the validity of this view by examining the links between burnout and an array of 22 work-situated (effort-reward imbalance, unreasonable work tasks, unnecessary work tasks, weekly working hours, job autonomy, skill development, performance feedback, and support in work life), work-unrelated (sentimental accomplishment, familial accomplishment, number of child[ren], leisure activities, residential satisfaction, environmental quality, security in daily life, and support in personal life), dispositional (neuroticism, sex, age, and physical condition), and intersecting (work–non-work conflict and non-work–work conflict) variables. The study involved schoolteachers from three different countries: France (N = 4,395), Spain (N = 611), and Switzerland (N = 514). Burnout was assessed with the Maslach Burnout Inventory for Educators. Most of our predictors were assessed based on widely used measures (e.g., neuroticism was assessed with the NEO-Five Factor Inventory). In order to assess sentimental accomplishment and familial accomplishment, we created two self-reported measures, namely, the Sentimental Accomplishment Inventory (SAI; 9 items) and the Familial Accomplishment Inventory (FAI; 9 items). The SAI and the FAI both showed strong reliability and high factorial validity. Exploratory structural equation modeling bifactor analysis and Mokken scaling suggested that both instruments could be considered essentially unidimensional. The study results showed that neuroticism, job strain, skill development, security in daily life, and work–non-work conflict were consistently associated with burnout across the three samples. Sample-specific predictors of burnout included sex, age, unreasonable work tasks, weekly working hours, job autonomy, support in work life, sentimental accomplishment, leisure activities, support in personal life, and non-work–work conflict. Relative weight analysis indicated that neuroticism was the best predictor of burnout in each sample. Our findings suggest that burnout’s nomological network may not be primarily job-related. We conclude that the tendency to de-emphasize individual-level and non-work factors in burnout research is unwise. This tendency may constitute a roadblock in the development of effective interventional strategies. The implications of our findings for burnout’s conceptual status are discussed. The neuroticism-burnout link should be further examined in longitudinal studies.

Burnout Stigma Inventory: Initial Development and Validation in Industry and Academia

Although burnout is a risk factor for various negative mental and physical outcomes, its prevention is hampered by the stigma associated with burnout. The current research therefore reports on the initial development and validation of a novel measure of perceived burnout stigma. Study 1 (n = 318) describes the construction and initial evaluation of scale items derived from established mental health stigma and burnout scales. Study 2 (n = 705) then replicated the burnout stigma factor structure established in the initial study. Additionally, it evaluates relationships between occupational and school burnout stigma and indicators of mental health. Hierarchical multiple regressions showed that burnout stigma accounted for variance in depression, anxiety, and stress over and beyond that of burnout. Study 3 (n = 682) extended these findings via cross-lagged and bidirectional models, demonstrating that burnout stigma predicted mental health indicators 6 weeks later. Study 4 (n = 717) supplemented earlier exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses using item response theory to further demonstrate that perceived burnout stigma is a unidimensional construct potentially applicable to both work and school settings. Overall, the current research resulted in an eight-item burnout stigma instrument (BSI-8) with excellent psychometric properties that predicts indicators of mental health.

A five-sample confirmatory factor analytic study of burnout-depression overlap

OBJECTIVE

It has been asserted that burnout-a condition ascribed to unresolvable job stress-should not be mistaken for a depressive syndrome. In this confirmatory factor analytic study, the validity of this assertion was examined.

METHODS

Five samples of employed individuals, recruited in Switzerland and France, were mobilized for this study (N = 3,113). Burnout symptoms were assessed with the Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure, the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI)-General Survey, and the MBI for Educators. Depressive symptoms were measured with the PHQ-9.

RESULTS

In all five samples, the latent factors pertaining to burnout's components correlated on average more highly with the latent Depression factor than with each other, even with fatigue-related items removed from the PHQ-9. Second-order factor analyses indicated that the latent Depression factor and the latent factors pertaining to burnout's components were reflective of the same overarching factor.

CONCLUSIONS

This study suggests that the burnout-depression distinction is artificial.

Burnout is associated with a depressive interpretation style

The aim of this 188-participant study (65% female; mean age = 40.31) was to examine whether burnout and depression are associated with similar interpretation biases in the processing of emotional information. Burnout symptoms were assessed with the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey and depressive symptoms with the 9-item depression module of the Patient Health Questionnaire. Interpretation bias toward emotional information was examined using an amended version of the Word-Sentence Association Paradigm (WSAP). In the WSAP, participants are asked to decide whether emotionally-valenced words are related to ambiguous sentences. Burnout and depression were each associated with a higher endorsement of negative interpretations and a higher ratio of negative interpretations to positive interpretations. Negative word endorsement and positive word endorsement interacted in such a way that negative word endorsement was predictive of burnout and depression only when positive word endorsement levels were relatively low. Our findings suggest that burnout and depression are associated with similar alterations in the interpretation of ambiguous information. This study supports the view that burned out individuals perceive the world with "depressive glasses." Cognitive bias modification techniques employed in the treatment of depressive conditions may constitute relevant therapeutic options for "burned out" individuals.

Impulsivity issues in borderline personality disorder and it's links with insight: the role of urgency

Objective

Impulsivity plays a major role in a wide range of disorders including Borderline Personality Disorder. Another crucial clinical dimension is insight. This clinical dimension is linked with symptomatology and treatment issue. The present study aims to investigate the impact of positive and negative urgency on insight in Borderline Personality Disorder.

Methods

We recruited eighty-one women with Borderline Personality Disorder and assessed insight level and impulsivity scores using the Beck Cognitive insight scale and the UPPS-short form scale.

Results

Our results showed interesting links between positive urgency and insight quality.

Conclusion

Negative emotions play a fundamental role for the insight quality, but positive emotions are surprisingly related to clinical insight. We discuss the possible therapeutical impact of this results on treatment adaptation.

The Relationship Between Burnout, Depression, and Anxiety: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: Burnout is a psychological syndrome characterized by emotional exhaustion, feelings of cynicism and reduced personal accomplishment. In the past years there has been disagreement on whether burnout and depression are the same or different constructs, as they appear to share some common features (e.g., loss of interest and impaired concentration). However, the results so far are inconclusive and researchers disagree with regard to the degree to which we should expect such overlap. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to examine the relationship between burnout and depression. Additionally, given that burnout is the result of chronic stress and that working environments can often trigger anxious reactions, we also investigated the relationship between burnout and anxiety.

Method: We searched the online databases SCOPUS, Web of Science, MEDLINE (PubMed), and Google Scholar for studies examining the relationship between burnout and depression and burnout and anxiety, which were published between January 2007 and August 2018. Inclusion criteria were used for all studies and included both cross-sectional and longitudinal designs, published and unpublished research articles, full-text articles, articles written in the English language, studies that present the effects sizes of their findings and that used reliable research tools.

Results: Our results showed a significant association between burnout and depression (r = 0.520, SE = 0.012, 95% CI = 0.492, 0.547) and burnout and anxiety (r = 0.460, SE = 0.014, 95% CI = 0.421, 0.497). However, moderation analysis for both burnout–depression and burnout–anxiety relationships revealed that the studies in which either the MBI test was used or were rated as having better quality showed lower effect sizes.

Conclusions: Our research aims to clarify the relationship between burnout–depression and burnout–anxiety relationships. Our findings revealed no conclusive overlap between burnout and depression and burnout and anxiety, indicating that they are different and robust constructs. Future studies should focus on utilizing more longitudinal designs in order to assess the causal relationships between these variables.

Burnout-depression overlap: Nomological network examination and factor-analytic approach

Burnout has been defined as a condition in which individuals are left exhausted by a long-term confrontation with unmanageable job stressors. The question of whether burnout reflects anything other than depressive responses to unresolvable stress remains an object of debate. In this 911-participant study (83% female; mean age: 42.36), we further addressed the issue of burnout-depression overlap. Burnout was assessed with the exhaustion subscale of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (MBI-GS) and depression with the PHQ-8. The relationships of burnout and depression with three job-related variables - illegitimate work tasks, work-nonwork interference, and job satisfaction - and three "context-free" variables - social support, general health status, and trait anxiety - were examined. Burnout and depression were found to be strongly correlated, to cluster together, and to exhibit overlapping nomological networks. Remarkably, the average correlations of burnout and depression with job-related variables were almost identical. A principal component analysis and a principal axis factor analysis both showed that the items of the MBI-GS and of the PHQ-8 loaded on a single dimension. All in all, our findings are consistent with the view that burnout is a depressive condition. The distinction between burnout and depression may be an instance of the jangle fallacy.