Title: Emotional dissonance and burnout among social counsellors

Authors: Mogens Agervold

Addresses: Department of Psychology, University of Aarhus, Jens Chr. Skovsvej 4, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark

Abstract: The study deals with four hypotheses: the degree of client contact is associated with strain and emotional dissonance (H1), case- and client loads are associated with strain and emotional dissonance (H2), emotional dissonance is positively associated with strain (H3) and emotional dissonance is a moderator between case loading and strain (H4). The results were unable to support hypothesis H1, but supported that strain is related to work related stressors (H2). Furthermore the results confirm that emotional dissonance is related to stress and burnout (H3) and that emotional dissonance acts as a intermediate variable between case-load and strain, including burnout and depression, (H4).

Keywords: burnout; emotional labour; emotional dissonance; stress; emotions; depression; social counsellors; client contact; case loads; strain.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWOE.2009.025395

International Journal of Work Organisation and Emotion, 2009 Vol.3 No.1, pp.1 - 17

Published online: 21 May 2009 *

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