Is Job Satisfaction an Antecedent or a Consequence of Psychological Burnout?

The article investigates the relationship between job satisfaction and burnout using a process model of psychological burnout. The model proposes that certain work setting characteristics interact with particular nonwork characteristics of individuals causing specific work stressors. These particular sources of stress, in turn, result in psychological burnout which then leads to job dissatisfaction. The research involves a secondary analysis of longitudinal data collected from 245 school-based educators from a single Board of Education. The results shows that negative work setting characteristics and marital dissatisfaction are associated with greater work stressors, which in turn are associated with increased burnout, which in turn result in decreased job satisfaction. When the longitudinal design is employed, psychological burnout appear to have a causal relationship to job satisfaction, not vice versa. Recognizing stressors is a major factor in successfully dealing with job burnout.