The association between job-related demands, individual resources and 4 types of exhaustion

Background: Professional exhaustion is consensually considered as the major dimension of burnout and it is often analysed as a unique concept. Few studies have tested the association between psychosocial factors and different subtypes of exhaustion. Relying on the Job Demands-Resources (JDR-C) conceptual model (Demerouti et al., 2001), the present contribution focuses on organizational and individual factors and on how they relate to several subtypes of exhaustion. Methods: 4798 adult workers (municipalities, bank, insurance, ICT and cosmetics sectors) answered an online questionnaire (the “Preventing Burnout Test”) aiming at detecting, at an early stage, professional stressors (i.e., lack of meaning, work load, ICT demand) and personal resources (i.e., self-esteem, family and friends support) hypothesised to be related with 4 subtypes of exhaustion: energy loss (EL), emotional (EE), physical (PE), and cognitive (CE). Data, controlled for company and general health, were examined through multiple regression analyses. Findings: Job demands predict emotional exhaustion, physical exhaustion and cognitive exhaustion but not physical exhaustion. Job resource and self-esteem predict the four types of exhaustion. Family and friends support predict energy loss and emotional exhaustion. Self-esteem moderated the relation between job demands and physical exhaustion. Self-esteem and family & friends support moderated the relation between job resource and physical exhaustion. Personal resources moderate the relation between organizational factors and physical exhaustion. Discussion: This study highlights the added value of considering personal resources and discriminating between different types of exhaustion in order to better target interventions