Burnout and satisfaction among student support services personnel

The purpose of this study was to measure burnout and job satis- faction among Student Support Services Personnel on a national level. Burnout was measured using the MBI Human Services Survey that measured emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment. Job satisfaction was measured using the Job Satisfaction Scale that examined intrinsic, organizational, and salary and promotion. This study correlated three components of burnout with the total mean from the Job Satisfaction Scale. Burnout levels were compared to national norms.

Subjects were randomly selected from the 1998-99 Directory of TRIO Programs. Multiple mailings were utilized. One hundred-sixty five usable surveys were returned with a response rate of 66%. Using the Spearman rho and multiple regression, the results indicated some significant findings. Finding disclosed a significant negative relationship between emotional exhaustion and total job satisfaction, a significant positive relationship between personal accomplishment and total job satisfaction, and an overall relationship between the three components of burnout and total job satisfaction. Implications were discussed based on the current literature.