Years of service, self-efficacy, stress and burnout among Polish firefighters

ObjectivesThe 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 MethodsThe 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.ResultsThe 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).ConclusionsThe 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.