ORIGINAL PAPER
Years of service, self-efficacy, stress and burnout among Polish firefighters
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1
Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
(Medical College, Department of Health Psychology)
2
SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Katowice, Poland
(Faculty of Psychology)
Online publication date: 2020-03-24
Corresponding author
Zbigniew Wajda
Neurosis and Eating Disorder Treatment Centre “Dąbrówka”, Asnyka 10, 44-122 Gliwice, Poland
Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2020;33(3):283-97
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ABSTRACT
Objectives: The aim of the research was to analyze the impact of selected factors: years of service, the number of interventions, self-efficacy and stress,
on occupational burnout. It was hypothesized that firefighters with more years of service and a bigger number of interventions would be characterized
by higher perceived stress and burnout, and that self-efficacy would have an impact on reducing the level of perceived stress and burnout. Material and Methods: The participants were firefighters (N = 576) from 12 Polish voivodeships, aged 20–58 years, with different seniority: up to 3, 4–8, 9–15
or >15 years of service. The following research tools were used: the Link Burnout Questionnaire, the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale, the Generalized
Self-Efficacy Scale, and an independent questionnaire to gather additional information. A correlation between particular variables was carried out;
the Kruskal-Wallis test was performed together with a post-hoc analysis to examine differences in the severity of individual variables depending on
seniority, followed by a path analysis studied together with the identification of direct and indirect impacts. Results: The number of interventions
did not affect the severity of experienced stress or any of the aspects of burnout. Work experience directly influenced the level of perceived stress
(β = 0.219), disillusion (β = 0.076), and relationship deterioration (β = –0.156). The generalized sense of self-efficacy was found to impact both on reducing
the sense of stress (β = –0.418) and on all 4 aspects of professional burnout: psychophysical exhaustion (β = –0.181), relationship deterioration
(β = –0.16), the sense of professional inefficacy (β = –0.275) and disillusion (β = –0.143). Conclusions: The results have shown that: 1) the number of
interventions does not affect the severity of experienced stress or particular aspects of burnout; 2) years of service increase the severity of experienced
stress and occupational burnout; 3) self-efficacy has an impact both on reducing the sense of stress and on all aspects of burnout. Int J Occup Med
Environ Health. 2020;33(3):283–97