This study reports the results of a survey of 142 staff from eight community-based programs serving mentally retarded adults. Stress, Burnout, Needs Deficiencies, Role Conflict, and Role Ambiguity were assessed and their interrelationships determined. Then, certain personal/professional and organizational variables were entered into a multiple regression analysis in order to predict stress levels. Finally, these and the stress scores were entered into the explanatory model to predict burnout levels. All five organizational variables were evident in each of the eight programs, and were significantly interrelated in over two-thirds of them. Stress and Burnout were the most related to each other, Role Conflict and Burnout the least. After controlling the effect of background work variables, the variables Needs Deficiencies, Role Ambiguity, and Role Conflict accounted for 44.4% of the Stress construct. Stress, Role Ambiguity, and Needs Deficiencies accounted for 57.0% of the Burnout construct. Though Role Conflict was a small but significant predictor of Stress, it was not of Burnout.
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