Stress, Coping, Occupational Attitudes, and Burnout Among Mental Health Practitioners

Abstract

While the concept of stress has intrigued researchers for centuries, occupational stress is a relatively new area and found to be critical in the understanding of physical and psychological health as well as occupational attitudes and performance (Abbott, 1990; Cox, 1993; Lambert & Hogan, 2009; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984; Lloyd, King, & Chenoweth, 2002; Snow, Swan, Raghavan, Connell, & Klein, 2003; Väänänena, Anttilab, Turtiainena, & Varje, 2012). Due to the nature of their work, mental health practitioners are particularly susceptible to work stress and ensuing burnout and turnover. Previous research, guided by the transactional theory of stress and coping (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), suggests that coping style mediates the impact of stress on the individual. As such, the paper starts with a review of stress and coping via the transactional theory, and then explores the impact on employee functioning. Subsequently, 150 mental health practitioners were sampled to examine stress, coping, and occupational attitudes. Results suggest that stress, coping, burnout, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment are significantly related, and that levels of stress, burnout, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment vary based on coping style, years of practice, work setting, and presenting client concerns. Furthermore, stress has direct effects on coping style, emotional exhaustion, and job satisfaction, while job satisfaction directly affects emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and affective commitment.