Job Burnout, Geographic Location, and Social Interaction among Educational Audiologists

Abstract

Job stress of 332 educational audiologists, measured on the Maslach Burnout Inventory, was obtained. 84% of the sample rated their overall job burnout as lower than norms for educational personnel. Mean differences were significant among those participants working in rural, suburban, and urban areas. Participants in rural areas had a significantly higher mean on Emotional Exhaustion and a lower mean on Personal Accomplishment. Correlations between scores on Emotional Exhaustion and Social Interactions ( r = −.36) and Personal Accomplishment and Social Interactions ( r = .44) were significant but not strong. As predicted, job burnout for these educational audiologists is similar to that in other descriptive studies of sampled helping professions.