Elsevier

Public Health

Volume 129, Issue 9, September 2015, Pages 1172-1178
Public Health

Original research
The association between work-related characteristic and job burnout among Chinese correctional officers: a cross-sectional survey

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2015.05.006Get rights and content

Abstract

Objectives

It is well known that job burnout is a major problem for many professions. Correctional officers, the most important driving force in correctional facilities, deal with unwilling and potentially violent populations, and this may lead to burnout. However, in China, few studies are available regarding burnout among correctional officers and associations with work-related factors. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of work characteristics on job burnout among Chinese correctional officers in public prisons.

Study design

Cross-sectional survey.

Methods

This cross-sectional study was performed in March/April 2011. The study population comprised 2185 correctional officers working in four prisons in a province in north–east China. A questionnaire that examined job burnout [three subscales: emotional exhaustion (EE), cynicism (CY) and professional efficacy (PE)], work conditions, occupational stress and demographic factors was distributed to these correctional officers. In total, 1769 responses were received (response rate 81%). Multiple logistic regression was used to explore the factors related to burnout.

Results

Mean (±standard deviation) scores were 10.59 ± 7.51 for EE, 9.65 ± 6.56 for CY and 23.90 ± 9.39 for PE. Strong extrinsic effort and reward were the most powerful predictors of job burnout; an imbalance between effort and reward at work and perceived threat was mainly associated with EE and CY, and strong overcommitment was mainly associated with EE and PE.

Conclusions

Chinese correctional officers experience a slightly higher level of job burnout, and this is affected by work-related stress. It is important to reduce occupational stress in correctional officers and improve disadvantageous work conditions in order to reduce burnout in this population.

Introduction

Burnout is a severe consequence of prolonged exposure to stressful work conditions.1 Energy depletion (exhaustion), increased mental distance from one's job (cynicism) and reduced professional efficacy are considered to be characteristic components of burnout. Burnout among workers can lead to decreased work performance and increased absenteeism.2, 3 As such, it has been recognized as an major problem worldwide.4, 5 Correctional officers (COs) have a unique work experience as the populations they serve are generally viewed as marginal members of society.6 Correctional work is often dangerous, requiring a high level of alertness, and COs may experience a persistent high level of mental pressure.7 As such, COs may be particularly vulnerable to burnout. A literature review among COs reported a high incidence of burnout.8, 9, 10, 11, 12 However, fewer studies have investigated burnout among COs compared with teachers and health workers.9 As they are responsible for ensuring social security,13 job burnout in this population is harmful to the COs, their families and society in general.3, 8 Therefore, it is important to decrease job burnout among COs, and to identify factors associated with job burnout.

Unfortunately, little research has been undertaken into the factors associated with burnout among COs.14 Neveu only identified 16 published studies on burnout among COs, and some of these studies did not explore the predictive factors.3 It has been reported that the working environment is more closely related to burnout among COs than personal characteristics,15 and prolonged work stress is the most important factor.16 Other work characteristics such as perceived danger of the job, job position, work time and work shift were all found to be associated with burnout among COs.3 Personal factors had fewer effects on burnout than the work environment.17 Therefore, this study focused on associations between job burnout and work-related factors, but controlled some important demographic factors.

In China, there are 300,000 COs and 1,640,000 prisoners (ratio of approximately 1:5); this is considerably lower than that in other countries (1:3 in Germany and France, 1:3.3 in Japan, 1:4 in England).18, 19 On average, Chinese COs work for nearly 12 h/day. However, compared with other occupational populations, the incomes of Chinese COs do not match their efforts, and prospects of promotion are uncertain.20 As such, the excessive work effort with little reward may lead to job burnout. More specifically, with correctional system reforms, the mission of COs has changed dramatically in the past 30 years.7 Increased work demands and society expectations mean that COs are responsible not only for overseeing inmates and protecting society from criminals, but also for social reinsertion. Therefore, it is important to understand the level of burnout among Chinese COs and its associated factors in order to improve their mental health and increase the quality of security services for society as a whole. However, there is a lack of empirical research regarding burnout among COs in China.

This study was designed to investigate burnout among Chinese COs and associations with work-related factors. Work conditions (job rank, working hours, salary, work shift and perceived threat) and occupational stress were considered in this study in order to clarify work-related factors associated with burnout among Chinese COs.

Section snippets

Study population

This cross-sectional survey was performed in Liaoning province in north–east China. Liaoning province has an estimated population of 48 million, 30 prisons and nearly 30,000 COs. Five medium-security prisons were selected for this study, and half of the COs from each selected prison were sampled at random. In total, the study population consisted of 2103 COs. After obtaining written consent to conduct this survey, a self-administered questionnaire was distributed to these participants in

Results

Table 1 shows the characteristics of the study subjects. The mean (±standard deviation) age was 39.46 ± 9.74 years in the study population. Table 2 shows the level of burnout and occupational stress in COs.

The results of univariate analyses between burnout and all variables are shown in Table 3. EE was related to age, sex, sleep disorder, exercise, smoking, chronic disease, job rank, working hours, work shift, perceived threat and all occupational stress factors. CY was related to sex, marital

Discussion

To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to examine job burnout and associations with work-related characteristics among Chinese COs. A fairly large sample and the effective response rate (81%; greater than the 70% response rate that has been reported to be normal and reasonable for questionnaire surveys26) indicated good representation of the study population and increased the generalizability of the study conclusions. The burnout levels of COs in this study were similar to those

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all the administrators in the selected prisons who helped to obtain written informed consent and distribute the questionnaires to the subjects.

Ethical approval

The Committee on Human Experimentation of China Medical University approved all surveys.

Funding

None declared.

Competing interests

None declared.

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