Extending the Two Process Model of Burnout in Child Protection Workers: The Role of Resilience in Mediating Burnout via Organizational Factors of Control, Values, Fairness, Reward, Workload and Community Relationships

Burnout has been disproportionally reported in child-protection social work. This paper presents data from 162 child-protection staff in Northern-Ireland, assessed for burnout using the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Path models were estimated, based on an extension of the Two Process Demands and Values model (Leiter, 2008) to include additional measures of resilience using the Resilience Scale-14, as well as Perceived Rewards and Sense of Community from the Areas of Work Life Scale AWLS (Leiter, 2008). Findings: Optimal model fit was achieved by modelling Resilience as a mediator of the relationship between organisational factors of Control and Value Congruence and burnout. Resilience also directly predicted Emotional Exhaustion (β = -.23, p<.005) and Personal Accomplishment (β = .46, p<.001). Workload was the strongest direct predictor of Emotional Exhaustion (β = -.54, p<.001). Adding Perceived Rewards to extend the Two Process Model was moderately associated with Control (β =.44, p<.001), Workload (β =.26, p<.005), Fairness (β =.40, p<.001) and Values (β =.32, p<.001). In the final model, Resilience is modelled as both an outcome of some organisational factors whilst also making a unique direct contribution to explaining burnout alongside other organisational factors. Other pathways and mediating relationships are reported and further research directions discussed.