The present study was carried out among a sample of 667 Dutch nurses and assesses three aspects of the construct validity of the two most widely used self-report burnout questionnaires: The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and the Burnout Measure (BM).Although the fuctoriaf vulidiry of the three.-dimensional structure of the MBI was convincingly demonstrated by confirmatory factor analysis with LISREL, four weak and ambiguous items were identified. Regarding the BM, some doubts have arisen about its one-dimensionality. The congruent validity of the questionnaires was well established: They both refer to the core element of the burnout syndrome (i.e. exhaustion). Moreover, linear structural analyses suggested that burnout is a two multi-dimensional construct consisting of an affective component (i.e. exhaustion) and an attitudinal component (i.e. a negative attitude towards recipients and towards one's job performance). However, the discriminant validity of the first component is rather poor since it considerably overlaps with self-reported somatic complaints and psychological strain. It is concluded that the MBI can be employed as a reliable and valid multi-dimensional indicator of burnout in professionals who work with people. The BM assesses the non-specific affective component of burnout (i.e. exhaustion) and should therefore be supplemented by a scale that measures the attitudinal component of the syndrome.
1981).Within a few years the MBI became the most popular instrument to assess burnout. Accordingly, the definition of burnout provided by the test-authors was accepted by implication. From then on it appeared that the controversy about the nature of burnout was settled by a silent agreement among researchers, at least as it relates to the human service professions. Then, according to Maslach and Jackson (1981), burnout was restricted to individuals 'who ' The authors gratefully acknowledge the detailed comments of the editor and the three anonymous reviewers on earlier versions of this article. , four dimensions have also been reported. In the latter case either the emotional exhaustion (Firth, McIntee, McKeown and Britton, 1985), depersonalization (Iwanicki and Schwab, 1981) or personal accomplishment subscale (Powers and Gose, 1986) separates into two factors. In contrast, some studies suggest a two-dimensional structure of the MBI (Brookings, Bolton, Brown and McEvoy, 1985; Dignam, Barrera and West, 1986; Green, Walkey and Taylor, 1991). The findings of these studies are rather consistent: Emotional exhaustion and depersonalization merge into a single factor. This leads some authors to propose a composite exhaustion and depersonalization score: The 'Core of Burnout Scale' (Green et al., 1991, p. 463). It should be emphasized that in none of the above-mentioned studies an adequate attempt was made to test the factorial validity of the MBI, for instance by carrying out confirmatory factor analysis. Although Golembiewski and Munzenrider (1988, pp. 19-23) claim that the results of their factor comparison...