Conflict and Ambiguity over Work Roles: The Impact on Child Care Worker Burnout

Abstract

This study looks at the child care workplace from the viewpoints of occupational stress and social support as they relate to staff burnout. Subjects included 188 child care workers from licensed child care centers in predominantly rural areas of Pennsylvania. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to assess the contribution of work role conflict and work role ambiguity (two forms of occupational stress) to predictions of three facets of burnout (i.e., emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, personal accomplishment). In addition, the buffering effect of social support on the relationship between these variables was assessed. The results show that both work role conflict and work role ambiguity predict a significant portion of the variance in all three facets of burnout. In addition, support is provided for the hypothesis that social support buffers the effect of work role conflict and work role ambiguity on perceived emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. The results are discussed in terms of changes that could be made to improve child care as an adult work environment.

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