Mediating effect of job burnout between social support and presenteeism behavior in open-pit coal miners

Background After working in a harsh occupational hazard environment for a long time, open-pit coal mine workers are under tremendous physical and mental pressure, which is prone to presenteeism behavior.

objective To identify the relationships between presenteeism, job burnout, and social support of open-pit coal miners, and verify potential mediating effect of job burnout between social support and presenteeism.

Methods In 2020—2021, a questionnaire survey was conducted among employees of 6 open-pit coal mining enterprises in Xinjiang by stratified cluster random sampling. Job Burnout Questionnaire, Job Content Questionnaire, and Presenteeism Behavior Scale were used to evaluate burnout, social support, and presenteeism behavior in the study subjects. SPSS 26.0 software was used for t test, F test, correlation analysis, and mediating effect test.

Results A total of 1199 questionnaires were distributed and 1083 valid questionnaires were recovered, with an effective recovery rate of 90.3%. The M (P₂₅, P₇₅) scores of presenteeism behavior, social support, and job burnout were 2.0 (2.0, 5.0), 24.0 (23.0, 26.0), and 45.0 (34.0, 51.0), respectively. The Spearman correlation analysis results showed that there was a significant negative correlation between social support and job burnout ( r =−0.200, P<0.01), a significant negative correlation between presenteeism and social support ( r =−0.260, P<0.01), and a significant positive correlation between presenteeism and job burnout ( r =0.304, P <0.01). The results of mediating effect test showed that social support had a negative effect on presenteeism ( \beta =−0.122, P <0.001). Social support negatively predicted job burnout ( \beta =−0.779, P <0.001). Job burnout had a partial mediating effect between social support and presenteeism, with an effect value of −0.0294 (95%CI: −0.0394, −0.0201), accounting for 24.18% of the total effect.

Conclusion Social support negatively affects the presenteeism behavior of open-pit coal mine workers, and job burnout plays a partial mediating role between social support and presenteeism behavior.