Positivity and job burnout in emergency personnel: examining linear and curvilinear relationship

The aim of this study was to examine whether the relationship between the ratio of job-related positive to negative emotions (positivity ratio) and job burnout is best described as linear or curvilinear. Participants were 89 police officers (12% women) and 86 firefighters. The positivity ratio was evaluated using the Job-related Affective Well-being Scale (Van Katwyk, Fox, Spector, & Kelloway, 2000). Exhaustion and disengagement, two components of job burnout, were measured using the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (Demerouti, Mostert, & Bakker, 2010). The results of regression analysis revealed that curvilinear relationships between the positivity ratio and two components of job burnout appeared to better fit the data than linear relationships. The relationship between the positivity ratio and exhaustion was curvilinear with a curve point at around 2.1. A similar curvilinear relationship, but with a lower curve point, i.e., around 1.8, was observed for disengagement. It seems that beyond certain values there may be hidden costs of maintaining positive emotions at work. Also, the unequal curve points for subscales suggest that different dimensions of work-related functioning are variously prone to such costs.