How Job Characteristics Impact Depressive Symptoms of Social Workers: Understanding the Roles of Occupational Burnout's Facets

ABSTRACT High emotional involvement and work overload make social workers susceptible to occupational burnout and depressive symptoms. Although the job demands–resources model (JD‐R model) posited that occupational burnout mediated the relationship between job characteristics and depressive symptoms, empirical findings on the‐ distinct effects of specific job demands and resources on depressive symptoms remained inconsistent. Moreover, the differential mediating roles of occupational burnout's facets had seldom been examined. This study utilized data from the China Social Work Longitudinal Study (CSWLS) 2019 to examine how job demands and job resources influenced depressive symptoms among social workers and to investigate the mediating effects of occupational burnout. The results showed that both role conflict and role ambiguity were positively linked to depressive symptoms, while job autonomy was negatively related, although the link for person–organization fit was not significant. All occupational burnout facets partially mediated the effect of job demands on depressive symptoms and fully mediated the relationship between person–organization fit and depressive symptoms. Job autonomy was significantly related only to personal accomplishment, which partially mediated its link to depressive symptoms. Job demands were found to be more sensitive to the negative facets of occupational burnout and depressive symptoms than job resources. This study enriched the content of the JD‐R model in the context of Chinese social workers, highlighting the distinct mediating roles of the three facets of burnout. Practical implications were also discussed for improving social workers' working conditions at both the organizational and policy levels.