Gender role stress and burnout in Chinese human service professionals in Hong Kong

Abstract

Three hundred and seventy-four Chinese human service professionals were surveyed to examine the associations between burnout and gender role stress. Gender role stress refers to people's gender-based cognitive appraisal of specific situations that are role dystonic and stressful. Results showed that gender role stress was the best predictor for emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, while professional type was the best predictor for personal accomplishment. Masculine gender role stress was related to emotional exhaustion and depersonalization for both male and female professionals, whereas feminine gender role stress was related to similar burnout dimensions for male professionals only. Gender role stress and burnout associations were found only in gender-typed professions of police officers and nurses, but not in a nongender-typed profession of secondary school teacher. Among the three groups, nurses experienced a higher level of gender role stress and lack of personal accomplishment than police officers and teachers.