Objective To assess the relationships among physical activity, social support, and job burnout of university and college counselors.
Methods A total of 324 counselors were enrolled from 2 key universities, 8 ordinary universities, and 7 colleges of Anhui Province by multi-stage stratified random sampling method. Physical Activity Scale, Social Support Scale, and Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey were distributed. The relationships among physical activity, social support, and job burnout were analyzed by partial correlation analysis, the contributions of physical activity and social support by linear regression analysis, and mediating effect by bias-corrected non-parametric Bootstrap method, respectively.
Results The total average scores of physical activity, social support, and job burnout of selected university and college counselors in Anhui Province were 20.4±9.8, 38.6±9.7, and 38.1±8.9, respectively. Physical activity was positively related to social support (r=0.289, P < 0.01), and negatively correlated to job burnout (r=-0.385, P < 0.01). Social support was also negatively correlated to job burnout (r=-0.330, P < 0.01). The linear regression analysis results showed that the regression coefficient of physical activity and job burnout was statistically significant (b=-0.165, P < 0.01) after introducing three dimensions of social support. The Bootstrap test results showed that subjective support and support utilization had mediating effects, and the b values were -0.138 and -0.093 (P < 0.01), accounting for 34.8% and 23.5% of total effect respectively.
Conclusion For the studied university and college counselor group, physical activity has a direct negative prediction effect on job burnout. Social support has a mediating effect between physical activity and job burnout, and acts mainly through subjective support and support utilization dimensions.
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