Locus of Control and Burnout among Nurses in Zimbabwe

Lefcourt (1981) argued that individuals who believe they lack control over stressful situations may experience greater occupational stress. This premise is supported by modest correlations between external locus of control scores and teachers' stress in societies as diverse as Britain (Kyriacou & Sutcliffe, 1979) and Singapore (Soh, 1986). The present study examined the relationship between locus-of-control scores and the specific stress condition of burnout among Zimbabwean nurses. Eighty-three black nurses, 63 women and 20 men of mean age 29.3 yr. (SD= 8.1) completed an 18-item Internal-External Scale (Dragutinovich, Austin, & White, 1983) and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach & Jackson, 1981). Internal-External Scale reliabilities (with mean scores in parenthesis) were for Social Systems Control .62 (4.221, Self-control .62 (2.69), Fatalism .46 (2.21), and total scale .69 (9.20). Maslach Burnout Inventory scale reliabilities (also with mean scores in parenthesis) were Emotional Exhaustion .78 (28.081, Personal Accomplishment .72 (32.32), Depersonalization .60 (16.15), and total scale .67 (63.91). Factor analyses (principal component analyses with orthogonal varimax rotation) of the Internal-External Scale and the Maslach Burnout Inventory yielded factors similar to those reported for these scales in Western studies. The factorial validity of these inventories in Zimbabwe was thereby supported. Full factorial results are available from the authors or Microfiche Publications.' The total Internal-External Scale externality score was significantly (p<.05) related to Personal Accomplishment (r = -.24), Depersonalization (r = .03, p< .05), and total burnout (r = .20) but unrelated to Emotional Exhaustion (r = .O3). These correlations are somewhat small but may have been attenuated by the rather low scale reliabilities. Present results provide crosscultural support for kfcourt's premised link of externahty and stress and suggest a possible moderator of nurses' stress in Zimbabwe

Burnout · Locus of control · Clinical Psychology · Health and Well-being Studies · Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout · Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior · Psychology · Social Psychology

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