Burnout Syndrome Among Medical Students at One University in Serbia: Validity and Reliability of the Maslach Burnout Inventory—Student Survey

ABSTRACT

The Maslach Burnout Inventory—Student Survey (MBI-SS) contains 15 items that evaluate the following burnout dimensions: Emotional Exhaustion, Cynicism, and Academic Efficacy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the dimensionality of the MBI-SS on a sample of Serbian medical students (N = 760). The overall Cronbach's α coefficient of the MBI-SS questionnaire was 0.757, while the Cronbach's α coefficients for Emotional Exhaustion, Cynicism, and Academic Efficacy were 0.869, 0.856, and 0.852, respectively. Principal Component Analysis with Oblimin rotation indicated 3 main components that explained 64.9% variance. The confirmatory factor analysis revealed good fit indices (χ²/df = 575.74/87, RMSEA = 0.086 (90% Confidence Interval for RMSEA = 0.079 to 0.092), CFI = 0.949, NNFI = 0.939, IFI = 0.949, GFI = 0.904) of the MBI-SS scale. The Serbian version of MBI-SS represents a valid and reliable instrument in the Serbian sample of medical students.

KEYWORDS:

• burnout syndrome
• medical students
• MBI-SS
• validity
• reliability

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of Republic of Serbia, through Contract No. 175042. We would like to thank the leadership of the Faculty of Medical Sciences Kragujevac for their financial support and the medical students for their participation in the study.