Early career burnout trajectories among child protective services workers

Burnout, or physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion resulting from chronic workplace stress, is highly prevalent and of high consequence. Most U.S. workers (60%) report experiencing at least one symptom of burnout, and symptoms pose a significant threat to worker performance, worker wellbeing, and workplace operation. Despite burnout's detrimental effects, limited research considers the development of burnout over the early career stage. Applying time-stress exposure and initial impact models, this study uses the Florida Study of Professionals for Safe Families (FSPSF; n = 1,019 individuals, n = 3,424 observations), a statewide, longitudinal cohort study of newly-hired child protective services (CPS) workers, to consider burnout symptoms from 6 months to 3 years on the job. Multi-level mixed effects regression analyses indicated the curvilinear nature of both work - and client-related burnout symptoms over time; the two-year, protective benefit of changing child welfare jobs; and the importance of job attributes in explaining protective effects of job change for work-related, but not client-related, burnout. Findings suggest the importance of targeted strategies to lower burnout (e.g. supervisory support, within-agency job change) particularly after 12-24 months on the job at the peak of burnout symptoms.