Development and validation of a questionnaire to assess burnout

The project aims to develop a self-report questionnaire to assess burnout, a work related state of mental exhaustion, which is an important cause of sickness absence and work incapacitation. The current assessment instruments have many flaws and are not up-to-date. The new burnout instrument will on the one hand be used as a screening instrument to identify employees who suffer from burnout (e.g. in epidemiological research or company surveys) and on the other hand as a diagnostic tool for assessing burnout among individual employees (e.g. in occupational health and psychological practice). Three empirical studies will be carried out that focus on the psychometric evaluation of the questionnaire, on establishing validated cut-off scores for burnout and on establishing norms using a representative sample. The project will be carried out in Flanders in close collaboration with IDEWE, an occupational health service, and two coaching/treatment agencies, The Human Links, and ISW-limits (a KU Leuven spin-off company), Kompas Loopbaancentrum, and Worklifebalance.

Keywords:burnout

Disciplines:Applied psychology