This study set out to examine the influences of music therapists' personality characteristics and self-efficacy on their burnout, to identify the factors affecting their burnout, and to provide basic data for preventing and dealing with their burnout....
This study set out to examine the influences of music therapists' personality characteristics and self-efficacy on their burnout, to identify the factors affecting their burnout, and to provide basic data for preventing and dealing with their burnout.
For these purposes, a survey was conducted, which included 59 music therapists who had clinical experiences after their graduation from a graduate school of music therapy in Korea. The collected data was treated with the SPSS 12.0 program and the study utilized descriptive statistics, frequency analysis, t-test, ANOVA, correlational analysis and multiple regression analysis. The research findings were as follows:
First, there were no significant differences in burnout among the groups according to their demographical variables such as ages, scholarly attainments, majors or religion.
Second, there were significant differences in burnout among the groups according to career record and job satisfaction. Career record led to significant differences in emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. Also, job satisfaction led to significant differences in emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and lack of personal accomplishment.
Third, there were no significant differences in burnout according to professional variables, but there were significant differences in emotional exhaustion among the groups according to the number of music therapy sessions.
Fourth, while there was a significant positive correlation between neuroticism and burnout, there was a significant negative correlation between self-efficacy and burnout.
And fifth, self-efficacy turned out to have a bigger influence on burnout than the personality characteristics. Especially, music therapy skill efficacy turned out to have a bigger influence on burnout than neuroticism.
The implications of the study include that to improve music therapists' music therapy skill efficacy is one way to prevent their burnout and that there should be more professional education provided in the training stage of music therapy. Making use of these results, they need to take an educational approach to the perception and management of burnout among music therapists and carry out ongoing researches on the strategies to prevent and deal with it.