The Relationship Between Recalled Self-esteem as a Child and Current Levels of Professional Burnout among Anglican Clergy in England

Abstract

The relationship between recalled self-esteem as a child and current levels of professional burnout among Anglican clergy in England 3 ABSTRACTThis study links and tests three strands of theory concerned with explaining individual differences in levels of professional burnout in general and among religious professionals in particular. These three strands concern the significance of current self-esteem, recalled selfesteem as a child, and personality. Data were provided by a sample of 1,278 male stipendiary parochial clergy working in the Church of England who completed the modified Maslach Burnout Inventory (specially designed for use among clergy), and the short-form Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (designed to measure the personality dimensions of extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism), together with a semantic differential index of recalled self-esteem as a child. The bivariate correlation coefficients demonstrated significant associations between more positive self-esteem as a child and lower levels of professional burnout (higher personal accomplishment, lower emotional exhaustion and lower depersonalisation). The bivariate correlation coefficients also demonstrated significant associations between personality and professional burnout. Multiple regression analyses, however, demonstrated that the association between recalled self-esteem as a child and professional burnout largely disappeared after controlling for the personality variables. The conclusion is drawn that knowledge about the personality profile of clergy functions as a more secure predictor of susceptibility to professional burnout than knowledge about recalled self-esteem as a child.

The Relationship of Clergy Burnout to Self-Compassion and Other Personality Dimensions

“…Age has been shown to be negatively correlated with burnout (Doolittle 2008;Stanton-Rich and IsoAhola 1998;Turton and Francis 2007;Francis et al 2008). Other negative correlates include extraversion (Miner 2007;Turton and Francis 2007;Francis et al 2008;Rogerson and Piedmont 1998;Hills et al 2004), higher levels of and higher satisfaction with activities outside of one's vocation such as leisure and exercise (Doolittle 2008;Stanton-Rich and Iso-Ahola 1998), positive attitude toward prayer (Turton and Francis 2007), higher differentiation of self from role and a collaborative conflict management style (Beebe 2007), seeking mentors (Doolittle 2008), more positive selfesteem as a child (Francis et al 2010), and congregation size . Positive correlates of burnout include neuroticism (Miner 2007;Turton and Francis 2007;Rogerson and Piedmont 1998;Francis and Rodger 1994;Francis et al 2004;Hills et al 2004), psychoticism (Francis and Rodger 1994;Francis et al 2004;Hills et al 2004), anxiety and depression (Doolittle 2008;Miner 2007), openness to change in beliefs (Miner 2007), dissatisfaction with spiritual life and difficult transitions to new church placements (Doolittle 2008), and hours worked .…”

“…Pastors' families often see beyond the persona and report that the pastor has become fatigued, withdrawn, and discouraged (Miner 2007). Many clergy report that their congregants have high expectations and show little appreciation (Francis et al 2010). It is therefore unsurprising that increasing numbers of clergy are leaving the ministry before retirement (Beebe 2007), contributing to a shortage of pastors.…”

Work-Related Psychological Wellbeing and Conservative Christian Belief Among Methodist Circuit Ministers in Britain: Distinguishing Between Emotional Exhaustion and Satisfaction in Ministry

“…Rutledge and Francis ( 2004 ) suggested that some of the items in the Maslach Burnout Inventory failed to reflect the experience and vocabulary of clergy, and proposed a modified form of this instrument for use among religious leaders. This modified instrument has been tested in a series of studies, including Francis and Rutledge ( 2000 ), Kay ( 2000 ), Francis et al ( 2004 ), Francis and Turton ( 2004a , 2004b ), Hills et al ( 2004 ), Randall ( 2004 , 2007 ), Rutledge ( 2006 ), Turton and Francis ( 2007 ), Francis et al ( 2007 ), Francis et al ( 2010 ), and Miller-Clarkson ( 2013 ). However, tight control over copyright has prevented this modified instrument being more widely used by other researchers.…”

The Science of Clergy Work-Related Psychological Health, Stress, Burnout and Coping Strategies: Introduction to the Special Section

“…A series of studies reported on the application of this instrument in the UK among Anglican clergy (Francis & Rutledge, 2000;Francis & Turton, 2004a, 2004bRandall, 2004Randall, , 2007Randall, , 2013; Rutledge, 2006;Francis, Robbins, Rolph, Turton, & Rolph, 2010), Catholic priests (Francis, Louden, & Rutledge, 2004;Francis, Turton, & Louden, 2007;Francis Robbins, Rolph, Turton, & Rolph, 2010), and among Pentecostal pastors (Kay, 2000).…”

“…Examples of studies using the Eysenckian model of personality are provided, for example, by Francis and Rutledge (2000), Rutledge and Francis (2004), Francis, Louden, and Rutledge (2004), Francis, Turton, and Louden (2007), Turton and Francis (2007), Francis, Robbins, Rolph, Turton, and Rolph (2010), and Wulff (2013a, 2013b). Examples of studies using psychological type theory are provided by Francis, Wulff, and Robbins (2008), Francis, Robbins, Kaldor, and Castle (2009), Robbins and Francis (2010), Robbins (2011), Francis, Gubb, and, Robbins, Francis, and Powell (2012), Francis, Payne, and Robbins (2013) and Francis and Crea (2015).…”