The Influence of Professional Life Areas and Work Engagement on Burnout Syndrome among Psychologists

The main aim of this study was to investigate the association between areas of work life and engagement in the development of burnout syndrome in self-employed and sub-ordinate psychologists. Using a cross-sectional approach with quantitative and qualitative elements, three scales validated for the Brazilian population were applied: Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT), Areas of Worklife Survey (AWS) and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES). 180 psychology professionals took part, with a predominance of females (88.3%) and a majority aged between 24 and 29. The results revealed a strong negative correlation between the BAT domains and aspects assessed by the UWES, confirming the inverse association between engagement and burnout. In addition, the positive associa-tion between areas of work life and engagement was confirmed. However, there was no confirmation of the negative association between areas of work life and burnout, and no evidence was found that these areas act as mediators in the relation between engagement and burnout. Thus, although the areas of work life have been shown to influence en-gagement and burnout independently, their role as mediators in this relationship has not been confirmed. Although some hypotheses were confirmed and significant associations were found, the research also encountered unexpected results and limitations that deserve to be considered in future investigations such as this one.