Italian Validation of the 12-Item Version of the Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT-12)

Abstract

The Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT) has shown satisfactory validity evidence in several countries, with the 23-item version of the instrument reporting adequate psychometric properties also in the Italian context. This paper is aimed to present results from the Italian validation of the 12-item version of the BAT. Based on a sample of 2277 workers, our results supported the factorial validity of a higher-order model represented by 4 first-order factors corresponding to the core dimensions of burnout, namely exhaustion, mental distance, and emotional and cognitive impairment. The measure invariance of the BAT-12 between data collected before and during the COVID-19 pandemic was supported. However, ANCOVA results suggest a higher score on the second-order burnout factor on data collected during the COVID-19 pandemic in comparison with earlier data. In line with the JD-R model, the BAT-12 total score reported a positive association with job demands (i.e., workload, time pressure, and role conflict) and a negative association with job resources (i.e., job autonomy, coworkers’ support) and personal resources (i.e., optimism, social self-efficacy, and task self-efficacy). Additionally, the BAT-12 showed a negative association with work engagement components (i.e., vigor, dedication, and absorption) and positive job attitudes (i.e., job satisfaction, affective commitment). All in all, our results identify the Italian version of the BAT-12 as a brief and reliable tool for measuring burnout among workers.

Validation of the Croatian version of the short form of the Burnout Assessment Tool: Findings from a nationally representative sample

“…In line with the presented conceptual underpinning, previous studies validating BAT-12 showed that the second-order model is supported on samples from Belgium and the Netherlands (Schaufeli et al, 2020a), Brazil and Portugal (Sinval et al, 2022), Ecuador (Vinueza-Solórzano et al, 2021, Italy (Mazzetti et al, 2022), Romania (Oprea et al, 2021), andSouth Africa (de Beer et al, 2022a). This study contributes to these research efforts by testing the proposed model for the first time in Croatia.…”

“…The reported findings corresponding to the H 1 and H 2 complement previous studies testing the latent structure of the BAT-12, which are still relatively scarce. With the exception of previously described studies testing the alternative latent structures of BAT-12 (Mazzetti et al, 2022;Oprea et al, 2021;Schaufeli et al, 2020a) detailed information on the nature of relationships (Greiff & Scherer, 2018). For future research that decides using different age groups, our results can be informative for establishing age cut-off points.…”

“…In doing so, we provide a rigorous psychometric test by comparing the proposed model with several theoretically plausible alternative factorial structures (one-factor, four-factor, and bifactor model). To our knowledge, such a research approach in validating the BAT-12 has so far been undertaken only in one study (Mazzetti et al, 2022). Comporting with presented conceptual and empirical arguments, we hypothesize: The next aim was to examine the measurement invariance of the BAT-12 across gender, occupational type (i.e., manual and nonmanual workers), and age.…”

“…In addition to providing the first empirical test of the validity and reliability of the Croatian version of the questionnaire, the present study complements the findings of earlier validations of BAT-12 conducted in other countries. To our knowledge, only five empirical validations of the BAT-12 have been conducted to date (i.e., De Beeret al, 2022a;Mazzetti et al, 2022;Oprea et al, 2021;Sinval et al, 2022;Vinueza-Solórzano et al, 2021), and this is the first study thatmeets two important methodological standards: (a) use of a representative sample; (b) basing the CFA results on testing five alternative models. When testing the factorial structure of the Croatian version of BAT-12 (H 1 ) we have introduced a modified second-order model including a theoretically elaborated correlation between the disturbances of two…”

Students’ Burnout at University: The Role of Gender and Worker Status

“…No gender differences emerged with regard to mental distance. According to some scholars [ 84 , 92 ], mental distance is a feeling of psychological detachment characterized by a scarcity of motivation, interest, and enthusiasm [ 84 , 92 ]. High levels of mental distance reveal a strong aversion toward the job and are related to feelings of cynicism toward one’s work [ 93 , 94 ].…”