Mediators of Intervention Effects on Law Enforcement Officers' Job Burnout

Introduction: Job burnout has been associated with absenteeism, intention to leave the job, job turnover, and lower productivity and effectiveness at work.  Burnout may also be “contagious” as it may cause greater person conflict and disrupt job tasks.  Exhaustion specifically is predictive of stress-related health outcomes and substance abuse.  Occupational interventions may decrease burnout by targeting change in the factors that cause burnout. Research on the Maslach Burnout Inventory has indicated that both situational and individual psychological factors influence burnout, although situational factors generally show a stronger relation with burnout.

Methods: The SHIELD (Safety & Health Improvement: Enhancing Law Enforcement Departments) study is a randomized controlled trial of a health and safety intervention for law enforcement officers (LEOs) in Oregon and Washington.  This analysis included 264 law enforcement officers. We used a structural equation model to test the effect of the intervention on exhaustion (a component of burnout) 24 months post intervention via the mediators social context, health practices, biological health, and mental health measured 12 months post intervention. Further analyses will include accounting for baseline levels of the mediators and outcome, as well as measurement invariance of the burnout construct for men and women.

Results: Although none of the mediator tested reached statistical significance in preliminary analyses, social context and mental health at 12 months post intervention were the strongest mediators of intervention effects on burnout 24 months post intervention. The mediated effect of intervention on burnout through mental health was ab = 0.12, SE = 0.11, p = 0.278, the mediated effect through social context was ab = 0.054, SE = 0.045, p = 0.232, the mediated effect through health practices was ab = -0.007, SE = 0.025, p = 0.783, and the mediated effect through biological health was ab = -0.002, SE = 0.008, p = 0.794.

Conclusions: A health and safety intervention that focuses on improving social context and mental health can help decrease burnout among law enforcement officers.