Impact of work pressure, work stress and work–family conflict on firefighter burnout

ABSTRACT

Little research has explored burnout and its causes in the American fire service. Data were collected from career firefighters in the southeastern United States (n = 208) to explore these relationships. A hierarchical regression model was tested to examine predictors of burnout including sociodemographic characteristics (model 1), work pressure (model 2), work stress and work–family conflict (model 3) and interaction terms (model 4). The main findings suggest that perceived work stress and work–family conflict emerged as the significant predictors of burnout (both p < .001). Interventions and programs aimed at these predictors could potentially curtail burnout among firefighters.

KEYWORDS:

• Burnout
• firefighter
• health and safety
• stress
• work–family conflict

Funding

This work was supported by a United States Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Fire Prevention and Safety Research and Development Grant, EMW-2011-FP-00582.