The relationship between Burnout and memories of educational parental practices of child and youth at risk care workers

Burnout seems to affect, mainly, professionals that have to take care of others. Considering that memories of parenting practices are associated with the psychological adjustment of the individual, the aim of this research was... [ view full abstract ]

Burnout seems to affect, mainly, professionals that have to take care of others. Considering that memories of parenting practices are associated with the psychological adjustment of the individual, the aim of this research was to measure Burnout Syndrome among workers in residential care units for out-of-home placed children and youth and to study the relationship between this Syndrome and memories that these workers have about educational practices of their own parents.
The sample comprises 70 workers from the educational teams from residential care units, mostly women (87.1%), aged between 22 and 64 years. Burnout was assessed with the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Survey Services (Maslach & Jackson, 1981 Portuguese version Maroco & Campos, 2013) and the Memories of Parenting Practices were evaluated with the EMBU- Inventory for Assessing Memories of Parental Rearing Behaviour (C. Perris, L. Jacobson, H. Lindstorm, L. von Knorring, H. Perris, 1980, Portuguese version Canavarro, 1999).
Results suggested that Burnout is not present among workers of the educational teams; weak but positive correlations were found between the perception of rejection by the mother and emotional exhaustion and also between the emotional support provided by the father and the worker’s personal accomplishment. Further research is needed in order to clarify the role that memories about parents’ educational practices play on the professional performance of child and youth at risk care workers and to better identify the potential factors that contribute to the development of Burnout Syndrome among these same workers.