A Typology of Work-Related Psychological Wellbeing Among Clergy: The Francis Burnout Inventory

Abstract The balanced affect model of clergy work-related psychological wellbeing operationalised in the Francis Burnout Inventory (FBI) maintains that professional burnout is predicted by the interaction between negative affect (emotional exhaustion) and positive affect (professional satisfaction). In order to locate negative affect and positive affect alongside one another, a five-fold typology was created using scores from 505 ministers in the Church of Scotland on the two scales of the FBI, the Satisfaction in Ministry Scale (SIMS) and the Scale of Emotional Exhaustion in Ministry (SEEM). The five types were characterised as Creaking (high SEEM and low SIMS scores), Coasting (low SEEM and low SIMS scores), Central (average SEEM and average SIMS scores), Compensating (high SEEM and high SIMS scores), and Cruising (low SEEM and high SIMS scores). The construct validity of this five-fold typology was demonstrated by comparing scores on three measures of the hypothesised consequences of burnout: the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale, the Purpose in Life Scale, and the frequency of thinking about leaving ministry. On these measures, Creaking types showed the greatest evidence of burnout and Cruising types the least, with other types falling between these two groups. Subsequently, mean and standard deviations scores from the combined data from 8 surveys totalling 4658 clergy were used to indicate cut-off points for this five-fold typology to be employed in future studies.