Resilience and Work Engagement as Predictors of Burnout in the Indian Workforce

Young professionals in India are more likely to experience burnout as a result of increased job demands, long workdays, and a lack of coping mechanisms. Developing successful workplace strategies and mental health interventions requires an understanding of psychological protective factors like resilience and work engagement. This study investigates whether work engagement and resilience are significant predictors of personal and professional burnout in 198 Indian working adults between the ages of 25 and 35 through a cross-sectional survey. Tools used in the study are Brief Resilience Scale (Smith et al., 2008), Utrecht Work Engagement Scale 9 (Schaufeli et al., 2006) and Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (Kristensen et al., 2005). Significant negative correlations were found between resilience and burnout (r = -.36, p <.01) and between work engagement and burnout (r = -.58, p <.01), while resilience and engagement had a positive correlation (r =.43, p <.01), according to correlation analyses. Burnout was significantly predicted by both resilience and engagement, according to hierarchical regression (R2 =.35), with engagement (β = -0.52) being a stronger predictor than resilience (β = -0.14). While absorption had no discernible impact, multivariate analyses showed that vigor and dedication were significant negative predictors of both professional and personal burnout. Professional burnout was not significantly predicted by resilience, but personal burnout was. These results highlight the protective function of resilience and work engagement—specifically, vigor and dedication—in reducing burnout in young Indian professionals. Reducing emotional exhaustion and fostering workplace well-being may be accomplished through interventions targeted at improving these psychological resources.