Occupational burnout: a cross‐cultural Israeli Jewish‐Arab perspective and its implications for career counselling

Prevalence of emotional burnout among dietitians and nutritionists: a systematic review, meta-analysis, meta-regression, and a call for action

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Despite anecdotal evidence pointing to the high prevalence of job stress and burnout among dietitians and nutritionists, few studies have been conducted on this topic. Moreover, most studies are from Western countries. The objective of the current study, based on systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression, is aimed to provide systematically graded evidence to assess the prevalence of emotional burnout among dietitians and nutritionists across age, sex, and cultural backgrounds.

METHODS

Two reviewers independently conducted a systematic search from 1 January 2000, to 1 April 2024 and was later updated to 15 November 2024, across seven databases: EBSCOhost Research Platform, EMBASE, PubMed/MEDLINE, ProQuest, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Web of Science. The DerSimonian-Laird method was utilized to pool the data in this meta-analysis. Data from a total of 12,166 dietitians and nutritionists were extracted from 16 datasets (published in twelve research reports) covering a period of approximately 25 years. We measured the pooled prevalence of global burnout syndrome and its individual symptoms among dietitians and nutritionists. Subgroup meta-analyses were also conducted to identify a comprehensive set of moderators, including participants' age and sex.

RESULTS

The prevalence of global burnout syndrome in dietitians and nutritionists (K = 10, N = 10,081) showed an overall prevalence rate of 40.43% [23.69; 59.74], I² = 99.3%, τ [95% CI] = 1.18 [0.84; 1.97], τ² [95% CI] = 1.38 [0.71; 3.89], H [95% CI] = 12.68 [11.70; 13.74]. The prevalence of burnout dimensions/individual symptoms in dietitians and nutritionists (K = 2, N = 695) is summarized as follows: emotional exhaustion (EE) at 26.11% [15.14; 41.17], I² = 84.0%, τ = 0.21, τ² = 0.46, Q = 6.25, p < 0.001; depersonalization (DP) at 6.59% [1.08; 31.22], I² = 95.0%, τ = 1.72, τ² = 1.31, Q = 20.18, p < 0.001; and personal accomplishment (PA) at 59.29% [39.81; 76.23], I² = 89.3%, τ = 0.29, τ² = 0.54, Q = 9.36, p < 0.001. Meta-regression showed no difference by age or sex, p = 0.80, and p = 0.20, respectively.

CONCLUSION

This meta-analysis revealed that the prevalence of burnout among dietitians and nutritionists is as high as in other medical professionals. Furthermore, age and sex were not significantly associated with emotional burnout among dietitians and nutritionists. This study provides the impetus for policy changes to improve dietitians' and nutritionists' working conditions, as well as the overall quality of nutrition care.

Burnout and predictive factors among medical students: a cross-sectional survey

BACKGROUND

Burnout is a growing problem in medical education, and is usually characterised by three dimensions: emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced professional efficacy. Currently, the majority of burnout studies have been conducted in western high-income countries, overshadowing findings from low- and middle-income countries. Our objective is to investigate burnout and its associated predictive factors in Morocco, aiming to guide intervention strategies, while also assessing differences between the preclinical and clinical years.

METHODS

A cross-sectional, self-administered online survey assessing burnout dimensions and its main determinants was distributed among medical students at Université Mohammed VI des Sciences et de la Santé (UM6SS, Casablanca, Morocco). Descriptive analyses involved computing mean scores, standard deviations and Pearson correlations. Further, t-tests were performed to check for significant differences in burnout dimensions across the preclinical and clinical learning phase, and stepwise linear regression analyses were conducted using a backward elimination method to estimate the effects of the selected variables on the three burnout dimensions.

RESULTS

A t-test assessing the difference in cynicism found a significant difference between students at the preclinical phase and the clinical phase, t(90) = -2.5, p = 0.01. For emotional exhaustion and reduced professional efficacy no significant difference was observed. A linear regression analysis showed that emotional exhaustion was significantly predicted by workload, work-home conflict, social support from peers and neuroticism. Cynicism was predicted by the learning phase, workload, meaningfulness and neuroticism; and reduced professional efficacy by neuroticism only.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest a potential gradual increase in cynicism during medical education in Morocco. Conducting this study in a low- and middle income country has enhanced the scientific understanding of burnout in these regions. Given the identified predictive factors for burnout, such as workload, work-home conflict, support from peers, neuroticism, and meaningfulness, it is necessary to focus on these elements when developing burnout interventions.

Evidence for cultural differences in affect during mother-infant interactions

Maternal care is considered a universal and even cross-species set of typical behaviors, which are necessary to determine the social development of children. In humans, most research on mother-infant bonding is based on Western cultures and conducted in European and American countries. Thus, it is still unknown which aspects of mother-infant behaviors are universal and which vary with culture. Here we test whether typical mother-infant behaviors of affect-communication and affect-regulation are equally represented during spontaneous interaction in Palestinian-Arab and Jewish cultures. 30 Palestinian-Arab and 43 Jewish mother-infant dyads were recruited and videotaped. Using AffectRegulation Coding System (ARCS), we behaviorally analyzed the second-by-second display of valence and arousal in each participant and calculated the dynamic patterns of affect co-regulation. The results show that Palestinian-Arab infants express more positive valence than Jewish infants and that Palestinian-Arab mothers express higher arousal compared to Jewish mothers. Moreover, we found culturally-distinct strategies to regulate the infant: increased arousal in Palestinian-Arab dyads and increased mutual affective match in Jewish dyads. Such cross-cultural differences in affect indicate that basic features of emotion that are often considered universal are differentially represented in different cultures. Affect communication and regulation patterns can be transmitted across generations in early-life socialization with caregivers.

The role of child-keyworker attachment in burnout among Saudi residential staff

Research on the impact of the keyworker-child relationship on residential staff is scarce. This longitudinal study investigated the potential moderating effects of child and keyworker attachment styles on the link between child behavioural problems and staff burnout and the moderating effects of child attachment style on the link between keyworker attachment style and keyworker burnout. Participants included 261 children and 59 residential child care workers, from 5 orphanages in Saudi Arabia. Five self-report measures were utilised: The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, the Security Scale, the Coping Strategies Questionnaire, the Maslach Burnout Inventory and the Experiences in Close Relationships Questionnaire. Keyworkers caring for relatively non-avoidant children and those with an avoidant attachment style themselves experienced relatively high burnout a year later. Relatively high burnout was also reported by avoidant keyworkers who cared for avoidant and generally insecure children, while anxiously attached keyworkers reported relatively high burnout when they cared for children with any type of insecure attachment style. The present findings highlight essential interpersonal processes involved in the development of burnout in residential child care workers and call for the employment of attachment-focused interventions as measures of burnout prevention.

Burnout during early career: lived experiences of the knowledge workers in India

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the phenomenon of burnout during early career among knowledge workers in information technology (IT) services industry in India.

Design/methodology/approach

The grounded theory research design was used to explore the research phenomenon. The study was based on the analysis of 43 in-depth interviews from the employees, managers and human resource professionals in IT services industry in India. Purposeful and theoretical sampling designs were used to locate the participants for the study. Grounded theory analytical procedures – open, axial and selective coding – were used to analyze and interpret the interview narratives. Atlas ti version 5.0. was used for qualitative data analysis.

Findings

The analysis of the interviews with the young knowledge workers reveal the following as the reasons for their burnout during early career: poor integration with the job and the organization at large, underemployment, stressful job and exhausting work environment, fear and insecurity of replacement of talent and downsizing. Strategies are discussed to deal with burnout situations among the young knowledge workers for individual and organizational well-being.

Research limitations/implications

The findings of the study are applicable to organizations such as the IT services industry and thus the research outcome cannot be generalized. The study includes lived experiences of employees only during their early career.

Practical implications

The findings are relevant and useful in the practice domain as they are grounded in field reality. It provides directions for managerial and organizational practices in preventing burnout in early career among knowledge workers.

Originality/value

The paper is original and the present study is among the first attempts to investigate the nature of burnout through qualitative inquiry.

International Perspectives on the Legal Environment for Selection

Perspectives from 22 countries on aspects of the legal environment for selection are presented in this article. Issues addressed include (a) whether there are racial/ethnic/religious subgroups viewed as “disadvantaged,” (b) whether research documents mean differences between groups on individual difference measures relevant to job performance, (c) whether there are laws prohibiting discrimination against specific groups, (d) the evidence required to make and refute a claim of discrimination, (e) the consequences of violation of the laws, (f) whether particular selection methods are limited or banned, (g) whether preferential treatment of members of disadvantaged groups is permitted, and (h) whether the practice of industrial and organizational psychology has been affected by the legal environment.