Authors' Affiliations

Tommy Boyer, Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN. Jessica Potter-Rodriguez, Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN. Hannah Winston, Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN. Dr. Diana Morelen, Ph.D., IMH-E, Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN.

Location

Culp Ballroom

Start Date

4-7-2022 9:00 AM

End Date

4-7-2022 12:00 PM

Poster Number

131

Faculty Sponsor’s Department

Psychology

Name of Project's Faculty Sponsor

Diana Morelen

Classification of First Author

Undergraduate Student

Competition Type

Competitive

Type

Poster Presentation

Project's Category

Psychology

Abstract or Artist's Statement

A growing trend in the psychological literature has consistently found a strong association between stress, burnout, and depression, especially in populations who are exposed to a high amount of occupational stress. And, while the relationship between stress and burnout has been distinct and strong, the same cannot be said for burnout and depression. Historically, burnout and depression have shared such a strong conceptual relationship that the literature disagreed as to whether they were truly separate mechanisms. However, while the two constructs do present behavioral similarities the underlying mechanisms which direct their presentation are subtly different. Depression is defined as a diagnosable mood disorder, which is implicated from a number of biopsychosocial factors regardless of occupation characteristics, while burnout is defined as an occupational syndrome which presents in response to prolonged exposure stress within one’s vocation specifically. Understanding the relationship between stress, burnout, and depression is relevant for all professionals, but may be especially important to study in sectors interacting with vulnerable populations known to be at risk for burnout. The Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH) workforce includes professionals who engage and serve children and families, many of whom have experienced trauma and/or have high psychosocial risk. This workforce may be particularly vulnerable to burnout in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, mental health symptoms (including depression) and stress rates have increased for many since the start of the pandemic. The current study aimed to explore perceived stress, burnout, and depression in a population of IECMH professionals, and to test whether depression symptoms act as a risk factor in the context of stress and burnout. The sample consists of 141 clinicians who work in the IECMH field (e.g., child welfare, home visiting, childcare), and who completed self-report measures of current stress, current burnout, and current depression in the summer of 2020. Bivariate correlation indicated significant and large relationships between both perceived stress and burnout (r = .70, p < .001), and depression and burnout (r = .59, p < .001). Given the high collinearity between our predictor (stress) and proposed moderator (depression, r = .80, p < .001), testing for the moderating effect of depression on the link between stress and burnout was unjustified. These results led us to wonder if other factors might better serve as protective factors in the context of stress and burnout and thus we examined the moderating effect of self-compassion on buffering against the relationship between stress and burnout. To explore the possibility of self-compassion weakening this relationship between perceived stress and burnout, simple moderation analyses were conducted in SPSS using Hayes’ PROCESS 4.0 Macro. The overall model results were significant (F(3, 99) = 65.08, R2 = .66, p < .001) and the interaction term was also significant (R2 change = .04, p = .001). Specifically, the relationship between stress (x) and burnout (y) remained significant across all levels of self-compassion, but the strength of the relationship between x and y was strongest when self-compassion was low and weakest when self-compassion was high.

Download

Share

COinS
 
Apr 7th, 9:00 AM Apr 7th, 12:00 PM

An Exploratory Analysis of Stress, Burnout, and Depression in the IECMH Workforce

Culp Ballroom

A growing trend in the psychological literature has consistently found a strong association between stress, burnout, and depression, especially in populations who are exposed to a high amount of occupational stress. And, while the relationship between stress and burnout has been distinct and strong, the same cannot be said for burnout and depression. Historically, burnout and depression have shared such a strong conceptual relationship that the literature disagreed as to whether they were truly separate mechanisms. However, while the two constructs do present behavioral similarities the underlying mechanisms which direct their presentation are subtly different. Depression is defined as a diagnosable mood disorder, which is implicated from a number of biopsychosocial factors regardless of occupation characteristics, while burnout is defined as an occupational syndrome which presents in response to prolonged exposure stress within one’s vocation specifically. Understanding the relationship between stress, burnout, and depression is relevant for all professionals, but may be especially important to study in sectors interacting with vulnerable populations known to be at risk for burnout. The Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH) workforce includes professionals who engage and serve children and families, many of whom have experienced trauma and/or have high psychosocial risk. This workforce may be particularly vulnerable to burnout in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, mental health symptoms (including depression) and stress rates have increased for many since the start of the pandemic. The current study aimed to explore perceived stress, burnout, and depression in a population of IECMH professionals, and to test whether depression symptoms act as a risk factor in the context of stress and burnout. The sample consists of 141 clinicians who work in the IECMH field (e.g., child welfare, home visiting, childcare), and who completed self-report measures of current stress, current burnout, and current depression in the summer of 2020. Bivariate correlation indicated significant and large relationships between both perceived stress and burnout (r = .70, p < .001), and depression and burnout (r = .59, p < .001). Given the high collinearity between our predictor (stress) and proposed moderator (depression, r = .80, p < .001), testing for the moderating effect of depression on the link between stress and burnout was unjustified. These results led us to wonder if other factors might better serve as protective factors in the context of stress and burnout and thus we examined the moderating effect of self-compassion on buffering against the relationship between stress and burnout. To explore the possibility of self-compassion weakening this relationship between perceived stress and burnout, simple moderation analyses were conducted in SPSS using Hayes’ PROCESS 4.0 Macro. The overall model results were significant (F(3, 99) = 65.08, R2 = .66, p < .001) and the interaction term was also significant (R2 change = .04, p = .001). Specifically, the relationship between stress (x) and burnout (y) remained significant across all levels of self-compassion, but the strength of the relationship between x and y was strongest when self-compassion was low and weakest when self-compassion was high.