Social support, organisational support, and religious support in relation to burnout in expatriate humanitarian aid workers

Abstract

Expatriate humanitarian aid workers are embedded in global crises, exposing them to traumatic and occupational stress and putting them at risk for job burnout. Aid workers (N = 111) from an international faith-based agency completed an interview assessing perceived social support, support from their organisation, support from God, and job burnout. It was hypothesised that the three types of support would be significantly related to each of the three components of burnout as measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory. The burnout subscales and the support measurements were orthogonalised to facilitate a hierarchical canonical analysis. When controlling for the effects of age and gender, perceived social support contributed significant unique variance to both emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment; whereas organisational support contributed significantly to emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation. God support demonstrated a complex relationship with burnout, as the interaction between age and God support was significant with depersonalisation.

Keywords:

• burnout
• humanitarian aid
• social support
• religious support
• organisational support