Predicting burnout in Australian mental health professionals: uncertainty tolerance, impostorism and psychological inflexibility

ABSTRACT

Objective

A high proportion of mental healthcare professionals experience burnout, which can impair wellbeing, lead to job withdrawal, and negatively impact client care. This study investigated the role of uncertainty tolerance, impostorism and psychological inflexibility in burnout in mental health clinicians.

Method

The sample consisted of 252 Australian mental health professionals, aged between 23 and 70 years (M = 38.87, SD = 10.65) and comprised primarily of psychologists (71.4.%). Participants completed a cross-sectional survey measuring burnout, dispositional intolerance of uncertainty, client care intolerance of uncertainty, psychological flexibility and impostorism. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to predict burnout.

Results

The regression model was significant and explained 47% of the variance in burnout. The predictor variables that contributed significantly to the model were dispositional intolerance of uncertainty, client care intolerance of uncertainty and psychological inflexibility. Gender, age, years of experience and impostorism did not contribute significantly to the model.

Conclusions

Intervention programs that specifically target dispositional intolerance of uncertainty, client care intolerance of uncertainty and psychological inflexibility may offer the potential to decrease burnout in mental health professionals.

Key Points

What is already known about this topic:

(1) Burnout in mental health professionals is common and has negative consequences for client care.

(2) Mental health professional’s capacity for uncertainty has implications for their coping, with low tolerance of uncertainty linked to anxiety, stress and burnout.

(3) Psychological flexibility in mental health professionals is protective and reduces the risk of emotional burnout.

What this topic adds:

(1) Burnout in mental health professionals was predicted by intolerance of uncertainty in daily life, intolerance of uncertainty in client care, and psychological flexibility.

(2) Mental health professionals in our study with clinically high levels of burnout were less tolerant of uncertainty, psychologically inflexible and felt like an imposter.

(3) Findings may support the application of interventions to prevent burnout in mental health professionals.

KEYWORDS:

• Mental health professionals
• tolerance of uncertainty
• burnout
• psychological flexibility
• impostorism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author DOI:10.5281/zenodo.7513431.