The relationship of clinical and psychological characteristics with the syndrome of emotional burnout and neuropsychic maladjustment of summer camp counselors

Abstract

Emotional burnout and professional maladaptation are quite common problems for many professionals who work with people, especially teachers. It is known that the phenomena under consideration can not only be related to each other, but also lead to serious problems with somatic and mental health, and can also provoke poor-quality, negligent performance of their duties, which, in turn, can lead to even greater negative consequences. To date, in the scientific literature there is practically no analysis of the connection between emotional burnout and neuropsychic maladjustment with other clinical and psychological characteristics of summer camp counselors. At the same time, the initial results of research into the level of burnout and work maladjustment indicate a fairly wide distribution of these phenomena. The purpose of our research was to study the relationship between the clinical and psychological characteristics of children's camp counselors and the level of their emotional burnout and neuropsychic maladjustment. The study involved 81 counselors from different children's camps with 24-hour stay. All employees completed a package of methods aimed at studying emotional burnout, neuropsychic maladaptation, motivation, personality structure, reflexivity, anxiety, communication skills, and emotional intelligence. The article presents the results of a study of correlations between indicators of emotional burnout, the level of neuropsychic maladaptation with other clinical and psychological characteristics of children's camp teachers. These phenomena are associated with a number of personal characteristics: anxiety, emotional intelligence, communicative competence, personality structure. In particular, counselors with a low level of burnout and a low level of maladjustment were characterized by sociability, trustfulness, emotional stability, an adequate reaction to conflict situations and a low level of anxiety. The results obtained are partially confirmed by our previous research and make a new contribution to the understanding of those factors that influence the state of counselors in terms of human capital. However, we also identified some contradictions in the data, such as the lack of a statistically significant connection between emotional burnout and the level of motivation. This indicates that motivation may play a less significant role in the formation of burnout among summer camp counselors compared to other professional groups, such as teachers. Of particular interest is the conclusion about the connection between the level of emotional burnout and neuropsychic maladjustment. There is a high level of maladaptation among counselors with a high level of burnout, which indicates a connection between these phenomena.