Personal resources and burnout: evidence from a study among librarians of Moscow region

Abstract

Purpose. The paper is aimed to study the level of burnout and its relations to personal resources in librarians of Moscow region. Method. The sample is comprised of 504 respondents, ranging from 17 to 72 years old. The most of the participants is women (96%). To measure burnout, a model proposed by V. Shaufeli and S. Desart was used. The main constructs of personal resources were optimism, hardiness and self-efficacy. As the main method of analysis, multi-level regression was used,which is the most preferable when analyzing clustered data, so that the contribution of any variablesis not overestimated. As a preliminary analysis, a measurement model of burnout was validated using confirmatory factor analysis (with first and second order factors). Findings. It was shown, that the respondents’ level of burnout is quite low, personal resources are strongly and negatively related to burnout (r_s = – .64, p < .01). The effect of personal resources varies across libraries (β = – .08, 95% CI[– .04; – .12]), however, is the same amongst rural and urban library workers (β = .03, 95% CI [– .15;.21]). In addition to personal resources, age was a significant predictor of the level of burnout (β = – .10,95% CI [– .18; – .02]), while the work experience turned out to be insignificant. Value of the results. In conclusion, the results of the paper are discussed with previous studies, as well as the possibility of professional development of librarians, considering their psychological state.