Burnout test: how to rate job exhaustion

He Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), better known as test burnout, is an instrument to measure job exhaustion or burnout syndrome. Such exhaustion reflects borderline occupational burnout in which there is chronic stress. It basically manifests itself as a continuous negative attitude towards the environment.

When a person has burnout, you feel fatigue all the time and, at the same time, you experience insomnia or problems resting properly. They also become irritable, show detachment or rejection towards their tasks and decrease their productivity at work.

In the long term, job burnout can have very serious consequences for a person.. Increases the risk of suffering from cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and infections. In addition, it can lead to a state of chronic fatigue that, in some cases, is irreversible.

The test burnout

There are several tests to evaluate job burnout. However, the test burnout It is one of the most complete and that is why it is used very frequently. It was designed by American psychologist Christina Maslach, together with her colleagues Susan E. Jackson and Michael P. Leiter, in 1981.

According to what was published by its authors in a book Maslach burnout inventory, This questionnaire is made up of 22 items in the form of statements associated with the attitudes and feelings that a person experiences towards their work. Its objective is to measure the intensity and frequency with which certain symptoms are experienced, related to work burnout.

This tool evaluates three aspects of the syndrome burnout:

Exhaustion or emotional tiredness:It has to do with the feeling of being exhausted, due to work requirements.Depersonalization: refers to distancing or lack of interest in work.Personal fulfillment: values ​​feelings of efficiency and work evolution.

Applying the burnout test

The way to apply the MBI is by asking the person to rate each of the 22 statements from 0 to 6, taking into account the frequency with which they experience that situation. This questionnaire must be completed in a period of between 10 and 15 minutes. The maximum score that can be obtained is 132.

The higher the final score, the greater the likelihood of burnout, except in the area of ​​personal achievement.. There are some values ​​that are taken as a reference to indicate that, although it is possible that there is no syndrome of burnout Strictly speaking, there are strong indications that it may be developing.

MBI versions

According to an article published in Science & Work, we can find three versions of the MBI. The first is the MBI-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS), which is designed to be applied to human services professionals. This is the classic version that consists of 22 items divided into 3 subscales.

The second version is the MBI-Educators (MBI-ES), developed for education professionals.. Here the word patient is changed to student, since the context is different. This version has the same structure as the MBI-HSS and retains the same names of the three subscales.

Finally, there is the MBI-General Survey (MBI-GS), a more generic version. Although it maintains the same structure as the two previous versions, it only has 16 items and the dimensions are called personal efficacy, exhaustion and cynicism.

It is worth mentioning that, in addition to these three, you can find a fourth, designed for adult students: MBI-General Survey for Students (MBI-GS). An investigation in the journal Frontiers in psychology, carried out with Italian university students, indicates that it is a valid and reliable test to measure burnout in students.

Strengths of the questionnaire “burnout”

Next, we will review some strengths of the MBI that have been highlighted by the aforementioned publication in Science & Work:

It has international acceptance: This allows us to compare results from different populations and cultures to design better prevention and intervention strategies.Has concurrent validity: This type of validity measures the correlation of a test with the measurement of another previously recognized test. In this sense, correlations have been observed between various behavioral scales with the MBI.Has divergent validity: This guarantees that the constructs of the test have no relationship with those with which they should not have one. Undesirable associations can alter the expected results, which is why this divergence is necessary.

Speaking of this last type of validity, a study in the Korean Journal of Adult Nursing, carried out with nurses, found that the test burnout of Maslach has a high divergent (or discriminant) validity between the subscales of emotional exhaustion, personal accomplishment and depersonalization. Furthermore, he points out that It is a valid instrument to measure the level of fatigue of nurses working in hospitals.

On the other hand, high reliability of the instrument has also been observed. Reliability in psychometrics refers to the consistency of results across different measurements. That is, a test is reliable if, when applied several times on the same person, it yields similar or approximate results in the different measurements. In this sense, an analytical report in International Journal of Nursing Studies found that The three subscales of the MBI have high reliability.

Ask for help when scores confirm burnout

He burnout considerably affects a person’s life. There are several negative consequences on a physical, mental and work level that burnout syndrome has on those who suffer from it. This makes its detection necessary and on time, for which the MBI is ideal.

In conclusion, it is necessary to highlight that, If someone gets high scores on the burnout testIt is best to consult a mental health professional.. This will be in charge of designing a strategy that prevents a further increase in the problem and addresses its possible causes and consequences.

You might be interested…