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

Karpova Elvira Borisovna ORCID: 0000-0002-1603-9132 PhD in Psychology Associate Professor, Department of Psychology of Crisis and Extreme Situations, St. Petersburg State University 199226, Russia, Saint Petersburg, Saint Petersburg, Michmanskaya str., 4 e.karpova@spbu.ru Stupnikov Andrei Sergeevich ORCID: 0009-0005-2987-7687 Postgraduate student, Department of Psychology of Extreme and Crisis Situations, St. Petersburg State University 197345, Russia, Saint Petersburg, Turistskaya str., 13, sq. 5 andrei1996991@gmail.com Other publications by this author     Yampolskiy Anton Andreevich Student, Department of Medical Psychology and Psychophysiology, St. Petersburg State University 199406, Russia, Saint Petersburg, Shevchenko str., 25 K. 1 AntonYamp11@gmail.com

Vildan Polina Konstantinovna ORCID: 0000-0001-7985-433X Postgraduate student, Department of psychological support of professional activity, St. Petersburg State University 195426, Russia, Saint Petersburg, Khasanskaya str., 8 room 1 vildanpolina@gmail.com

 Introduction

Stress, emotional burnout and maladjustment in people whose activities involve regular communication with other people are significant problems in their professional activities and are quite common. Moreover, these problems are especially common among teachers. Thus, according to various data (both domestic ^{[10, 11, 12]} and foreign ^{[19, 12, 28]}), the prevalence of emotional burnout among teachers varies from 25 to 80%. And Stefan A. N. claims that 53% of young teachers have a low level of adaptation ^{[6, 17]}.

Working as a teacher in a children's camp (as a counselor) is in many ways similar to the work of a teacher. Both professions involve a high level of emotionally intense communication with all participants in the educational process, an unbalanced work and rest schedule, high workload in general, and lack of proper remuneration. It is worth noting some differences. The profession of a counselor involves staying at the place of work around the clock (often in not very comfortable living conditions), being ready for difficult situations at any time, and a high level of responsibility for the life and health of children. However, with the high intensity of the counselor's work, it is seasonal and short-term, unlike the work of teachers at school.

The presence of a large number of stressful factors causes research and practical interest in the study of emotional burnout and neuropsychiatric maladjustment of camp counselors. However, in our opinion, there are significant shortcomings in these studies. Emotional burnout has been considered in only a few articles ^{[21, 27, 32]}. In a study by Ko and co-authors ^[27], an analysis was conducted of the relationship between the aggression to which employees were subjected and emotional burnout in 169 counselors who worked at a summer camp for children with intellectual disabilities. The results of this study showed that the level of emotional burnout increased among counselors. Another study ^[21] showed that throughout the summer, camp staff felt significantly worse and the level of emotional burnout increased. In our previous study ^[5], as a result of the diagnosis of 120 people, it was noted that 80% of counselors develop emotional burnout. It is worth noting that in this study, almost 70% of the counselors studied worked for the first time, as a result, it is fair to assume either a very rapid formation of emotional burnout, or another similar phenomenon, namely, maladaptation. Therefore, the study of emotional burnout and neuropsychic adaptation, the relationship between these phenomena, as well as the study of factors preventing the formation of both emotional burnout and neuropsychic adaptation, is interesting both from a scientific and practical point of view.

The subject of the study: clinical and psychological characteristics of counselors with signs of neuropsychiatric maladjustment and emotional burnout.

Object: counselors with signs of emotional burnout and neuropsychiatric maladjustment

The purpose of this study is to study the links between indicators of emotional burnout, neuropsychic maladjustment and clinical and psychological characteristics of counselors.

The hypothesis of the study is based on the assumption that there is a relationship between clinical and psychological characteristics and levels of emotional burnout and neuropsychiatric maladjustment.

The scientific novelty lies in the fact that this is the first article in the Russian literature, which examines the relationship of clinical and psychological characteristics of counselors with signs of burnout and neuropsychic maladaptation.

The concept of emotional burnout was introduced by psychologist Freudenberger ^[24] describing the states of demoralization, frustration and extreme fatigue among employees of psychiatric institutions. K. Maslach and S. Jackson analyzed the main signs of emotional burnout and developed a questionnaire to measure it. According to the researchers, emotional burnout manifests itself in three aspects: emotional exhaustion, which is a feeling of constant emotional overstrain, and emptiness; depersonalization, which is described as a negative, pessimistic attitude towards other people at work; reduction of personal achievements, i.e. underestimation of one's own achievements, lack of meaning and desire to make efforts in the workplace.

More recent studies have explored a wide range of negative effects of burnout. Problems in interpersonal relationships (professional and personal), deterioration of the psychological atmosphere of the organization and, as a result, organizational problems. Burnout can also provoke substance abuse. In addition, a large number of somatic disorders are associated with emotional burnout, for example, cardiovascular diseases ^{[20, 31]}, impaired immune function ^{[29, 30]}, gastrointestinal problems ^[26] and others ^[25].

There are some factors associated with emotional burnout. For example, a high level of emotional intelligence negatively correlates with the level of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization ^[2]. A recent study confirms these results in a sense: the authors claim that a high level of emotional intelligence predicts the use of constructive coping strategies and a low integral burnout index ^[4].  The external locus of control, the presence of high expectations are characteristics that also affect the development of emotional burnout. There is a negative correlation between extraversion and burnout components. One of the factors positively associated with burnout is anxiety: the higher the level of anxiety, the higher the level of burnout ^[1]. There are positive correlations between emotional instability and burnout ^[23]. Such a strategy of conflict behavior as avoidance positively correlates with the level of emotional burnout ^[15]. In addition, there is a significant negative correlation between empathic abilities and burnout ^[18]. Shafikova G.R. and co-authors cite a number of characteristics associated with teacher burnout. So, according to them, emotional burnout correlates with ambivalence of attitude towards people, anxiety, conservatism, timidity, lack of autonomy, high dependence on external stimulation, on acceptance in a team, and the desire to be conformal. Also, the authors argue that the burnout of modern teachers is poorly related to the locus of control, volitional, intellectual and communicative spheres ^[16]. Attitude to work, attitude to students, the status of a teacher in a team, the level of self-actualization and motivation also correlate with the level of emotional burnout ^{[7, 8, 9, 13]}. Thus, there are a large number of articles in the modern literature that present the results of studying psychological and clinical-psychological characteristics associated with emotional burnout, however, it is worth additionally noting that these characteristics are studied only in groups of teachers, and not in groups of counselors.

Neuropsychic adaptation is the process of adapting the human psyche to the conditions of its physical and social environment. The result of maladaptation is negative transformations of personal characteristics, negative feelings about oneself and others, loss of meaning and desire to perform activities, as well as various somatic disorders ^[14].

I. N. Gurvich identifies the following levels of neuropsychiatric adaptation: complete mental health; limited mental health; probable borderline mental pathology, neuroticism; pronounced mental pathology ^[3].

Thus, it can be concluded that there is a significant lack of research in the scientific literature in the field of mental maladaptation of teachers, as well as works on psychological characteristics associated with this phenomenon.

Sampling and research methods

81 counselors from different children's camps with round-the-clock stay took part in our study. Most of the children's camps are located in the Leningrad region, a small part of the counselors (18 people) worked in the south of Russia. The sample consisted of 11 men and 70 women. All employees were diagnosed on the 10-12 working day of the shift at the children's camp using the following methods: the questionnaire of emotional burnout K. Maslach, S. Jackson (adapted by N. E. Vodopyanova), the test "Neuropsychic adaptation" (I.N. Gurvich), the Five-factor personality questionnaire (adapted by A. B. Khromov), "Diagnostics structures of motives of labor activity" (T. L. Badoev), "questionnaire of reflexivity" (A.V. Karpov), "integrative anxiety test" (A.P. Bizyuk, L.I. Wasserman, B. V. Iovlev), "test of communicative skills" Mikhelson (adaptation by Y.Z. Gilbukh), “emotional intelligence test" (D.V. Lyusina).

Results

After evaluating the normality of the distribution of variables, we found that some of the values are distributed abnormally, in particular, one of the central variables is the results of the NAP. In this regard, a correlation matrix was constructed using Spearman's rank correlation method. Also, from a large number of variables and, as a result of multiple hypothesis testing, the Benyamini-Hochberg correction was applied. The sample was also divided into 2 parts according to the integral burnout index for a high level of burnout and a low level of burnout. The nonparametric Mann-Whitney criterion was applied for a comparative analysis of the variable of neuropsychic adaptation in these two groups.

Comparative analysis of the level of mental adaptation in high and low burnout groups

A statistically significant difference was found between the groups in terms of the level of neuropsychic adaptation at the level of p<0.001. In the group with a high level of burnout, a higher level of neuropsychic maladjustment was found.

The relationship between clinical and psychological characteristics and emotional burnout

Five-factor Personality Questionnaire (BIG5)

The correlation matrix is presented in Table 1.

Table 1. The relationship of personal factors and indicators of emotional intelligence (p ?0.01*; p ?0.05**).

Factor 1.3 sociability/closeness is significantly associated with all scales of the burnout questionnaire. The higher the values of the factor, the less pronounced the burnout. Almost the same pattern is observed for the main factor of extraversion/introversion, with the exception of depersonalization. This confirms the results of a study on the role of extraversion as a protective factor in relation to burnout. The same pattern is observed with respect to factors 2.3 and 2 – a negative association with burnout. The correlation of factor 3 “self-control/impulsivity” turned out to be statistically unreliable, nevertheless, factors 3.2 and 3.3 “perseverance” and “responsibility”, respectively, are negatively associated with burnout. Factor 4 “emotional instability” is already positively associated with burnout, which is consistent with research on the relationship between neuroticism and vulnerability to burnout. As for the final factor, the 5.1 “curiosity/conservatism" scale is of interest. High values for this factor predict low values for the integral burnout index and all subscales (with the exception of the “reduction of professionalism” scale, which is inverted).

Integrative Anxiety Test

A statistically significant positive relationship was found between the level of anxiety and all scales of the burnout questionnaire. The most pronounced relationship between the scales of “emotional exhaustion” and AI (0.632, p=0.001 and 0.570, p=0.002). 

Emotional intelligence

The correlation matrix is presented in Table 2 

Table 2. The relationship between indicators of emotional burnout and emotional intelligence (p ?0.01*; p ?0.05**).

Understanding emotions and intrapersonal emotional intelligence – both of these scales are negatively associated with the level of burnout at a statistically significant level. It is also unusual that the “emotion management” scale is reliably associated only with the “emotional exhaustion" scale.

Communication competence

It has been found that the types of responses to the behavior of others are associated with AI. The type of response dependent and aggressive are positively associated with AI (0.429, p=0.009 and 0.36, p=0.003), and the confident type of response is negatively associated (0.451, p=0.002).

The relationship between clinical and psychological characteristics and the level of mental adaptation

The picture of the correlation matrix is similar to the picture of the matrix of emotional burnout. Neuropsychiatric maladjustment is negatively associated with factor 1.3 (0.374, p=0.003), factor 1.5 (0.239, p=0.002), factor 1 (0.317, p=0.019), factor 2.1 (0.327, p=0.003), factor 2.3 (0.347, p=0.004), factor 3.1 (0.261, p=0.006), a factor of 3.2 (0.399, p=0.001), and is also positively associated with a factor of 4.3 (0.573, p=0.047). A negative relationship was found between the level of neuropsychiatric maladjustment and emotional intelligence with the scales “intrapersonal emotional intelligence” (0.379, p=0.004), “emotion management” (0.348, p=0.006) and the general level of emotional intelligence (0.314, p=0.048). A positive association was found with the level of anxiety (0.675, p=0.002).

Discussion of the results

As a result of our statistical analysis, many relationships were revealed between such characteristics of the study group as anxiety, emotional intelligence, communicative competence, personality structure, emotional burnout and neuropsychic maladjustment. The results of the study, in general, may indicate that a counselor with a low level of burnout is sociable, trusting, emotionally stable, understands his emotions well, reacts confidently in conflict situations, responsible, persistent, curious, with a low level of anxiety. Practically the same can be said about neuropsychiatric maladaptation: the more pronounced these qualities are, the higher the adaptability. The presented results are consistent with the results of some previous studies. For example, correlations between emotional burnout and extraversion, emotional instability, emotional intelligence, avoidance in conflicts described in articles ^{[2, 15, 23]} were also found in this article.

However, there are some contradictions. For example, as a result of the conducted research, no statistically significant relationship was found between emotional burnout and motivation level, unlike the data presented in another article ^[13]. This may indicate that the level of motivation of counselors, unlike teachers, is not such a significant factor in the formation of burnout.

The conclusion of a comparative analysis of the level of neuropsychiatric maladjustment in counselors with different levels of emotional burnout is also interesting. So, counselors with a high level of burnout also have a high level of maladjustment. These results may indicate that there is some relationship that the correlation analysis did not reveal between the studied phenomena. We believe that in further research, it is of particular interest to study the relationship between emotional burnout and symptoms of neuropsychiatric maladjustment.

Conclusions

Based on the results of the study, several conclusions can be drawn:

Personality characteristics such as communicative competence, emotional intelligence and anxiety levels have a stable direct connection with emotional burnout and neuropsychic adaptation. Counselors with a low level of burnout and a high level of adaptation have qualities such as sociability, trustfulness, emotional stability and self-confidence.

Unlike some previous studies, this study did not reveal a statistically significant association between the level of motivation and emotional burnout in counselors. This may indicate that motivation is not a significant factor for burnout among counselors, unlike teachers.

It is also interesting to note that the level of burnout is associated with the level of neuropsychiatric maladjustment in counselors. Counselors with a high level of burnout were more likely to have a higher level of maladjustment, which indicates the importance of studying this relationship in future studies.

In general, the results of this work confirm some previous studies, but also reveal new links between clinical and psychological characteristics, emotional burnout and neuropsychiatric maladaptation in camp counselors. The results of this article may be of practical importance for the development of support and training programs for counselors and others aimed at reducing burnout and improving their psychological well-being.

Based on the results obtained, the following recommendations can be given for the prevention and correction of emotional burnout and neuropsychiatric maladjustment in counselors:

First of all, it is necessary to create a favorable psychological atmosphere in the team, when training counselors, it is necessary to develop their communication skills (establishing trusting relationships, conflict resolution, etc.), emotional intelligence skills (recognizing and managing their own and others' emotions), develop self-confidence and stress tolerance. To reduce anxiety in the initial stages, it is also important to formulate realistic expectations and goals that the employee wants to achieve. In addition, it is necessary to carry out timely diagnosis of symptoms of maladaptation and emotional burnout of counselors in order to form groups of employees who need professional help from psychologists. The comprehensive implementation of these recommendations will improve