Title

Predictors of Burnout in Community Corrections

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D)

Department

Counseling

Date of Award

Fall 2018

Abstract

Burnout in the field of helping others is extensive, costly, and unproductive and it leads to an increasing, detrimental problem to probation officers. Probation officers are exposed to often unpredictable or aggressive offenders and are frequently challenged with deficient resources to assist these individuals, thus generating a unique work environment with conflicting roles, moderately low earnings, substantial workloads, and extraordinary amounts of stress. The purpose of this study was to examine and better understand the severity of burnout among probation officers in the state of Texas. Additionally, I aimed to examine and explore the association between burnout rates, gender, age, years worked as a probation officer, levels of education, feelings of safety, marital status, type and size of caseload, and self-care of probation officers. Significant relationships were noted between the number of individuals in an officer's caseload and scores on all three scales of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). Officer's engagement in self-care activities was significantly correlated with scores on the depersonalization and personal accomplishment scales of the MBI. Women demonstrated higher scores on the emotional exhaustion scale than did men.

Advisor

Chester R. Robinson

Subject Categories

Counseling | Social and Behavioral Sciences

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