Sources of social support and burnout: A meta-analytic test of the conservation of resources model.
Summary & key facts
This 2006 meta-analysis combined past studies on social support and burnout. Overall, social support showed similar links to the three burnout parts: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization (feeling detached or cynical), and reduced personal accomplishment (feeling less effective at work). But the source of support mattered: support from work was more strongly tied to emotional exhaustion, while nonwork support showed the opposite pattern. The author says this finding challenges the Conservation of Resources (COR) model and calls for more research to clarify these relationships.
- The paper is a meta-analysis by Jonathon R. B. Halbesleben, published in 2006 in the Journal of Applied Psychology (PMID: 16953774).
- Overall, social support did not show different relationships across the three burnout dimensions: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment.
- Work-related sources of social support were more closely associated with emotional exhaustion than with depersonalization or personal accomplishment.
- Nonwork sources of social support showed the opposite pattern: they were relatively less linked to exhaustion and more linked to depersonalization or personal accomplishment.
- These results challenge the Conservation of Resources (COR) model, which predicts that different resources should relate differently to each burnout dimension.
- The author notes the need for further research to better understand how different types and sources of resources relate to the distinct parts of burnout.
Abstract
The Conservation of Resources (COR) model of burnout (Hobfoll & Freedy, 1993) suggests that resources are differentially related to burnout dimensions. In this paper, I provide a meta-analysis of the social support and burnout literature, finding that social support, as a resource, did not yield different relationships across the 3 burnout dimensions (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment), challenging the COR model. However, when considering the source of the social support (work vs. nonwork) as a moderator, I found that work-related sources of social support, because of their more direct relationship to work demands, were more closely associated with exhaustion than depersonalization or personal accomplishment; the opposite pattern was found with nonwork sources of support. I discuss the implications of this finding in relation to the COR model and suggest future research directions to clarify the relationship between resources and burnout dimensions.