Resilience As a Personal Resource Reduces Burnout Among Social Workers: Implications for Policy and Practice

The prevalence of burnout among social workers is a significant concern and may negatively impact organisational effectiveness, service quality, and employee health. Effective interventions requires the understanding of the interplay among stressors and protective factors of burnout in the context of the Job Demands-Resources model. Little is known about role of resilience as a personal resource in protecting employees against burnout. The objectives of the present study were to explore the prevalence of burnout and to elucidate the role of resilience in reducing burnout among social workers. Cross-sectional study among a representative sample of Hungarian social workers (N=664) using self-administered questionnaires. We assessed burnout (Mini Oldenburg Burnout Inventory), resilience (Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale), job demands, job support, and sociodemographic variables and used Structural Equation Modelling to elucidate the mediation and moderation role of resilience in reducing burnout. We found that social workers reported a high prevalence of exhaustion (67.5%) and disengagement (55.1%). Resilience was inversely correlated with exhaustion and disengagement and protected social workers from exhaustion. Resilience moderated the relationship between job demands (work overload) and disengagement as well as job support (supervisor support) and exhaustion. Resilience mediated the relationship between job resources (supervisor support) and disengagement as well as exhaustion. Furthermore, resilience served as a mediator between job demands (i.e., work overload) and disengagement (mediation effect ratio of 19.4%). Our results contribute to burnout research through advancing our knowledge on the antecedents of burnout and also on JD-R theory. Developing and empowering employees’ personal resources such as resilience may improve organisational and individual outcomes, such as employee wellbeing.