This study introduces a new 16-item burnout measure, the IBOCS, which consists of two separate scales: a burnout symptoms scale and a burnout contributors scale. We evaluated the psychometric properties of the IBOCS using a sample of 1,244 individuals. The resulting IBOCS scales were also compared to validated and commonly used measures of stress and wellbeing. The IBOCS was created with two specific goals in mind: to create a scale that measured burnout from major areas of life stress; and to create a scale that could be easily administered on digital platforms. A long-term aim of this work is to use the IBOCS, in concert with other measures and strategies of health promotion and positive psychology, to help individuals gain improved insight and management of the stress in their lives.
Exploratory factor analyses on the IBOCS revealed two burnout dimensions (Exhausted and Fulfilled) and two Contributor Dimensions (Negative and Positive). Higher scores on the EX-dimension strongly correlated with higher scores on other measures of stress including the PSS1 and the VIBE 10 Stress Personality Scale. These data indicate our short form IBOCS correctly taps domains associated with experiencing high levels of stress. Further supporting the integrity of IBOCS, the EX is negatively correlated with high scores on the SWEMWBS, a measure of wellbeing. Taken together, these data demonstrate that the EX-dimension correlates with high levels of stress and lower levels of wellbeing, consistent with our general hypothesis and goals. The FX domain, made up of items of engagement, accomplishment, feeling valued, and feeling fulfilled, positively correlates with the PSS2 and the SWEMBS wellbeing index, and negatively correlates with both the PSS1 and VIBE-10, providing further evidence for the existence of a two-factor solution for the IBOCS burnout items. This two-factor solution from the burnout analyses maps nicely onto the work of others, [4] who report similar domains of exhaustion and diminished personal achievement and values. These findings are consistent with those reported by Hewitt, et al. who demonstrated a factor related to physical/mental exhaustion and a second factor associated with feeling valued using a different set of items [42]. Others, however, have argued that reports of diminished effectiveness are ‘implicit” in the full burnout experience [43].
The factor structure of the 10 burnout contributor items provide evidence of two straightforward dimensions. The first dimension, negative contributors, is made up of 7 items of stress generated from being overwhelmed by concerns about health, relationships, work/school, digital health, and financial wellbeing. The second dimension, positive contributors, is made up of the presence of social, personal, and financial support, and reflects how multiple negative stressors can be balanced by positive influences.
The IBOCS items were then further reified in the confirmatory factor analytic steps which showed that the proposed structure fit the data well. As an additional study to ensure that unnecessary or redundant items were not included in the final group, both sets of data were subjected to machine learning (ML) analyses to reduce the number of items to be considered. These analyses helped confirm that the 16 item IBOCS included only those items necessary to assess for levels of burnout and further to explore the contributions to individual variation.
In addition to the study of burnout items, we were interested in pathways and contributors to the experience of burnout. Focusing on the two contributor factors that emerged from the EFA, CFA, and ML analyses, Negative Contributors and Positive Contributors, our data reveal that individuals report that all the major areas of life can contribute to the experience of burnout, not just work-related stress. High scores on the NEG factor, an accumulation of the five types of life stress, correlate with higher scores on the PSS1and the VIBE-10, demonstrating the cumulative impact of stress from all areas of life to the experience of burnout. Further, high scores on NEG negatively correlate with the PSS2 coping factor and the sense of wellbeing as measured by the SWEMWBS. The POS factor scores follow the opposite trend. Positive contributors, as identified by research in positive psychology, such as having positive social interactions, enjoying social support, and having resources to allow the pursuit of leisure time activities, directly correlate with coping skills PSS2 and wellbeing (SWEMWBS) and inversely correlate with PSS1 and VIBE-10. In sum, the EFA, CFA, and ML investigations into the psychometric properties and convergent delivery support that this new measure of burnout and contributors to burnout correlates well with measures of stress, (PSS 1 and VIBE-10), coping factors (PSS2) and wellbeing (SWEMWBS).
Latent class analyses were also performed in this study, with a five-class solution found to fit the data best across the continuums of EX and FX scores. The pattern of results suggests two main conclusions. First, burnout is more of a continuum than a binary entity as suggested by the multiple groups with slightly increasing levels of EX along with slightly decreasing levels of FX. As depicted in Figure 1, the lines representing the 5 classes in their levels of the 3 domains of the exhausted factor run nearly parallel to each other, reflecting the phenomenon that, for example, one’s sense of feeling emotionally exhausted is closely tied to one sense of feeling physically tired. This pattern suggests that the 3 domains of the exhaustion pattern reflect a single unity construct that is dimensional in nature. While the latent class procedure forces individuals into categorical types with very low, low, moderate, high and very high levels of the EX-factor, these categories are likely more of an artifact from trying to group something that is more dimensional in nature. In personality trait research, where similar structures have been observed, this has been referred to as the “salsa” pattern, analogous to the way in which the continuum of spiciness is somewhat arbitrarily fit into categories of mild, medium, and hot [44]. The other factor, fulfilled, revealed a very similar pattern except in reverse with classes that expressed higher levels of EX reporting lower levels of FX, and vice versa. The one exception to this pattern was LC4 to be discussed in more detail shortly.
A similar conclusion is reached when examining the results from the contributor items, namely that people who feel burnout from one area of their life are likely to perceive burnout from another. This finding was somewhat unexpected, as we would have predicted small classes whose burnout was driven primarily by one independent area of life (for example, health worries) and not others. Our inability to identify these groups suggests the possibility that burnout can result in a kind of “chain reaction” from one domain of life to another. Alternatively, the pattern could reflect more of consistent style in which someone perceives the inevitable stressors coming from all areas of one’s life relative to their threshold to cope with them.
Scrutinizing these classes more closely, the specific group of individuals with low EX scores and high FX scores (LC1) reveals a population of individuals who are relatively free of stress live with high levels of feeling fulfilled, valued, and accomplished. The fact that nearly 8% of informants fit this profile provides evidence that this aspirational space is attainable, but with the other 92% leading lives with at least slightly higher levels of EX and lower levels of FX.
The goal of identifying classes with intermediate scores was also realized, with LC2, consisting of nearly 15% of respondents, reporting slightly higher levels of EX and only slightly lower levels of FX. This group experiences stress and is engaged and fulfilled. The combined population prevalence of 23% of individuals existing in LC1 and LC2, in the face of a pandemic, is in fact quite remarkable and hopeful. The remaining three classes have different EX/FX architecture that also provide a lens of our modern world. LC3, 43% of the study population, report moderately high levels of EX and moderately high levels of FX. In fact, visual interrogation of Figure 1 appears to paint a portrait of a stressful life with high levels of engagement, accomplishment, and fulfillment. Given that LC3 is the largest of the classes, and given the stressors of modern life, it is not hard to predict that LC3 reflects a common dance that humans face to balance stress and fulfillment in their lives. LC4 (19%) and LC5 (16%) provide very different profiles. Where both classes reflect high scores on the exhaustion items, LC4 provides an interesting portrait. Stress is everywhere, and in fact many of us seek out, or invite stress into our lives, whether it be the pursuit of high-powered positions, engagement in competitive performance, athletics, etc. or taking on highly demanding social projects and policies. Clearly there are many very healthy, centered, and present individuals who lead these kinds of lives. LC4 reflects a group of almost 16% of our sample that have the highest exhaustion scores, but also very high fulfillment scores on feeling engaged, valued, and fulfilled. LC5 paints a different picture, as this group displays high EX scores, yet lower scores on the engaged, valued, and fulfilled items. A major focus of our ongoing work with the IBOCS will be to investigate the relations between this class and measures of emotional wellbeing, as most would agree that living a highly stressful life without feeling valued or engaged would be a tough life to live. Unfortunately, 16% of our sample find themselves in this spot. By comparing LC4 and LC5, a subtle but important lesson emerges it is possible to live in highly stressful environments and still feel fulfilled and valued. An important future component of our work will be to compare other characteristics such as impairment, emotional behavioral health, demographic factors, sex, and financial characteristics between different LCs. In the same way that comparisons of LC4 and LC5 may help us learn about how best to balance the stress in our lives, comparisons between LC1, low EX and high FX, and LC4 high EX and High FX offer us a chance to better understand the roads to fulfillment in high stress versus low stress environments.
The LC of the 10 Contributor items and two dimensions (NEG and POS) provide evidence that burnout originates from multiple domains. In fact, in none of the 6 latent classes was work/school related stress the primary or only contributor to burnout. A review of the different profiles reveals important findings. LC1 represents 12.5% of the individuals in our study. These report very low levels of NEG Contributors and very high levels of POS contributors. This class, reminiscent of LC1 from the burnout item analyses, lives in a relatively stress-free space buttressed by high levels of social support, positive social interactions, and resources to support their social pursuits. We plan to pursue future research to determine additional characteristics of this fortunate group. LC2 (24.4%), LC3 (24.4%), LC4 (22.3%), represent 71% of the sample with increasing levels of NEG and POS contributors reported by each. This large sample of engaged, socially supported and active individuals, experience varying degrees of negative stress contributors balanced against varying degrees of positive factors. The remaining two classes, LC5 (24.4%) and LC6 (4.2%) provide us with very different profiles of understanding the relations between NEG and POS contributors to burnout. LC5 demonstrates sawtooth profile in which the most powerful contributors are work and health concerns. Unfortunately, this group also has the lowest positive support factors and suggests a large group of individuals who are struggling both professionally, and with their health. However, LC6, a much smaller group, provides a different profile. This group, which is somewhat similar to the LC5 for the burnout analyses, reports the highest levels of NEG stress contributors as well as the highest levels of POS social factors. Viewing stress and burnout through this lens brings us back again to the appreciation that for some individuals, living highly stressful lives and having highly rewarding social lives at the same time is attainable.
In sum, our LC work on both the burnout items and contributor items support our hypothesis that individuals can be categorized in a variety of stress and stress coping states. Further, both LCAs show evidence that it is possible to live in low stress high reward environments as well as high stress high reward environments, even if vast majority of us live somewhere in between where there is a delicate balance between our stress contributors, stress symptoms, social supports and our feelings of accomplishment and being valued.
Ultimately, the main purpose of this work was to build and test the IBOCS to move forward with future investigations that consider stress and its mediating and moderating factors such as sex, age, and socioeconomic status. In addition, factors such as emotional behavioral health, general medical health, social justice issues, gender identity, and long-term health issues, are all factors of concern that need to be explored in greater depth. We aim to do this work using modern digital data collection devices and then team these data to examine the relations between stress response patterns, coping strategies, and stress-based personality types. Further, we aim to partner the IBOCS in studies with psychophysiological biomarkers of stress and stress responsivity such as heart rate, heart rate variability, blood oxygen levels, respiratory rate, actigraphy, and electrodermal activity using wearable technologies. Combining data from these sources, our goal is to create a one-of-a-kind digital health application that combines data on psychophysiology with measures of stress and burnout to provide individually tailored artificial intelligence-informed health coaching to implement strategies from health promotion, illness prevention, and positive psychology. With additional advances, we envision a time in which the measurement of stress and burnout will lead to the generation of real time insights, designed to aid the user to better manage their stress and change the arc of their wellbeing. Toward these goals, the IBOCS is a promising new scale to measure burnout and contributors to burnout, particularly regarding the experience and response to multifactorial sources of stress.