Positive and Negative Religious Coping as a Moderator of the Relationship Between Covid-19 Stressors and Employee Burnout Among Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors

During the investigation of this study, no study was located that explores the moderating effects of both positive religious coping (PRC) and negative religious coping (NRC) on the COVID-19 stressor-employee burnout relationship within the vocational rehabilitation counseling (VRCs) profession. Therefore, this study sought out to examine just that. Recruitment emails were sent out to VRCs to obtain 79 participants who were at least 18 years old, have worked at least 6 months as a VRC during the COVID-19 pandemic, and worked an average of 20 hrs/week. Each participant completed a 20-minute online survey containing CIS, PSS, MBI-HSS, Brief RCOPE scales. Twelve multiple linear regressions were used to test both hypotheses to determine the moderating role of PRC and NRC in between COVID-19 stress (CIS and PSS) and employee burnout (occupational exhaustion, depersonalization, personal accomplishment). Although not all interaction terms significantly predicted the outcomes, both hypotheses were partially confirmed. Of the three regressions assessing an interaction between COVID stress and PRC for each of the three burnout subscales, only depersonalization was significant (depersonalization: b=-.01, p=.03). For PSS and PRC, only personal accomplishment was significant (personal accomplishment: b=.01, p=.01). For COVID stress and NRC, only depersonalization was significant (depersonalization: b=.01, p=.04). Lastly, for PSS and NRC, only depersonalization was significant (depersonalization: b=.01, p=.02). It would be beneficial to employees for employers to invest attention and implement practices that acknowledge the importance of mental health self-care and the benefits of PRC.