Causes and Treatment of Burnout in Residential Child Care Workers: A Review of the Research

Burnout is a syndrome composed of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization of clients, and loss of feelings of personal accomplishment. It is widely believed that the burnout syndrome is most applicable to human service workers due to the emotional demands of their work. Residential child care workers are uniquely prone to burnout, because they endure all the same stressors as other members of the human service field, yet they often do not receive the same level of respect or appreciation. The problem of child care worker burnout can negatively impact an organization by increasing turnover, which has significant negative impacts on the well-being of the children as well as financial repercussions on the organization. Many researchers have studied the causes of burnout, and these causes can be grouped into three different categories: personal characteristics, job/role characteristics, and organizational characteristics. Additionally, many researchers have focused on burnout treatment and have identified several different techniques for reducing and/or eliminating burnout. It is the purpose of the present study to review and integrate all of the existing research on burnout causes and treatment.