The Relationship Between Perfectionism, Stress and Burnout in Clinical Psychologists

Abstract

Perfectionism has been suggested as a risk factor for the development of stress and burnout in psychotherapists, but this has not been extensively investigated. This study examined the relationship between perfectionism, stress and burnout in 87 Australian clinical psychologists. Stress had significant influences on the relationship between perfectionism and burnout. Specifically, stress was found to be a partial intervening variable in the relationship between perfectionism and personal burnout. In addition, stress was also found to completely mediate the influence of perfectionism on work-related and client-related burnout. The results indicated that perfectionism was both directly and indirectly related through stress to various types of burnout in clinical psychologists. Implications of the findings for research in to the utility of intervention for high levels of perfectionism in clinical psychologists are discussed.

Sign language interpreters and burnout

“…An important feature of the study was the testing of a burnout model that accounts for the way personality traits (in this case perfectionistic tendencies) impact the stress and coping appraisal process. Although there seem to be no published studies of sign language interpreters that directly investigate the interactions between these variables, this study extended the findings of earlier research investigating the association between perfectionism, stress, and burnout in several other professional fields (e.g., D'Souza et al 2011) Results from the current study are consistent with a multidimensional conceptualization of perfectionism. Specifically, bivariate correlations (see Table 2) suggest that adaptive perfectionism and maladaptive perfectionism have differing correlations with stress, coping, and burnout.…”

“…While all perfectionists strive to attain high standards, maladaptive perfectionists combine this aspiration with a self-critical posture when they fail to achieve it. This has been associated with a variety of negative psychological outcomes (e.g., Gnilka et al 2012Gnilka et al , 2013Rice & Ashby 2007), and also with burnout within professions such as psychology, teaching, and medicine (D'Souza et al 2011;Houkes et al 2008;Stoeber & Rennert 2008). By contrast, adaptive perfectionists are less self-critical, more forgiving of mistakes, and less distressed when goals are not met (Rice & Slaney 2002).…”

Multidimensional Perfectionism and Burnout

“…Avoidant strategies such as suppression, denial, and disengagement appear especially important in explaining the perfectionistic concerns-burnout relationship and allude to how perfectionistic concerns appear to disarm those who exhibit it when attempting to cope with stress. Other potentially important explanatory mechanisms include those that have been examined in some domains but not others, such as stress (D'Souza, Egan, & Rees, 2011) and overcommitment (Philp, Egan, & Kane, 2012). In addition, factors associated with perfectionism and burnout, such as perfectionistic cognitions (A. P. Hill & Appleton, 2011), and factors that mediate similar relationships in these domains, such as resilience (Klibert et al, 2014) and social support (Molnar et al, 2012), may also be important.…”

Three Scales to Measure Burnout of Primary School Teachers: Empirical Evidence on their Adequacy

“…Its internal consistency and homogeneity, factorial validity and criterion-related validity were also found to be acceptable in a study of teachers in New Zealand (Milfont, Denny, Ameratunga, Robinson, & Merry, 2008). Yet, many more studies having used the CBI in the last years do not report its psychometric properties (D' Souza, Egan & Rees, 2011;Klein, Grosse Frie, Blum, & Knesebeck, 2010).…”