Abstract:
Objectve Aircrew (flight atendants and security ofcers) are exposed to high workload, shif, and jet lag, thus are vulnerable to job burnout. This study explores the relationship among personality, social support, and job burnout of aircrew.
Methods A total of 615 (135 males, 21.9%; 480 females, 78.1%) flight attendants, security ofcers, and concurrent flight atendants & security ofcers of an airline company in Beijing, at the age of 21-51 (29.0±4.6) years, were recruited. Chinese Big Five Personality Inventory, Social Support Ratng Scale, and Chinese Job Burnout Scale were used in the survey. Pearson correlaton analysis was conducted to analyze the correlation between measurement data. A structural equation model was used to evaluate the mediating role of social support in the relationship between personality and job burnout and to analyze the relatonship between study variables.
Results There were 376 (61.1%) out of 615 aircrew having job burnout. Among them, 174 were at mild level, with a detecton rate of 28.3%; 186 were at moderate level, with a detecton rate of 30.2%; 16 were at high level, with a detecton rate of 2.6%. The Pearson correlaton analysis results showed a positve correlaton between job burnout score and neurotc score, and negatve correlatons of job burnout score with social support total score, subjectve support score, and support utlizaton score. Signifcant correlatons were also found between the scores of all the fve dimensions of personality and the total score & dimensional scores of social support. The model ft indices of the inital structural equaton model were poor. Afer modifcaton, the model showed beter ft indices as the normed ft index (NFI), comparatve ft index (CFI), incremental ft index (IFI), and goodness-of-ft index (GFI) were all acceptable. Social support yielded a direct effect on job burnout (-0.22) (P < 0.001), and extraversion yielded a direct effect on social support (0.31) (P < 0.001) but not on job burnout; therefore, social support played a complete mediatng role in the relationship between extraversion and job burnout. Neuroticism yielded direct effects on both social support (-0.22) (P < 0.001) and job burnout (0.40) (P < 0.001); therefore, social support played a partal mediatng role in the relatonship between neurotcism and job burnout.
Conclusion A high prevalence of job burnout is found among the studied flight attendants and security officers. Aircrew with higher neurotcism levels are more vulnerable to job burnout. Social support plays a mediatng role in the relatonship between personality and job burnout.