The effect of psychological capital between work–family conflict and job burnout in Chinese university teachers: Testing for mediation and moderation

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the relationship between work–family conflict and job burnout as well as the potential mediation/moderation effects of psychological capital. Participants were 357 university teachers who completed a questionnaire packet containing a work–family conflict scale, psychological capital questionnaire, and Maslach Burnout Inventory–General survey. According to the results, work–family conflict and psychological capital were both significantly correlated with job burnout. In addition, psychological capital cannot mediate—but can moderate—the relationship between work–family conflict and job burnout. Taken together, our findings shed light on the psychological capital underlying the association of work–family conflict and job burnout.

Keywords

job burnout occupational mental health psychological capital university teachers work–family conflict

Introduction

Job burnout is characterized by individuals experiencing and reacting negatively to long-term work pressure and is one of the most important indicators of occupational mental health (Chiron et al., 2010; Cole et al., 2012). According to Maslach and Jackson (1981), job burnout contains three dimensions: emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced professional efficacy. Individuals suffering “emotional exhaustion” have depleted their emotional and relevant physiological resources, left feeling that they have no energy or are over fatigued. “Cynicism” is defined by a pessimistic, cold, and distant attitude, and “reduced professional efficacy” characterizes individuals who feel they are incompetent or unable to make achievements (Peng et al., 2013; Toker et al., 2015). Job burnout can affect individuals’ physical and psychological status in addition to their work—an individual suffering serious job burnout typically shows a high degree of anxiety and depression, even certain physiological diseases (e.g. chronic fatigue, headache, and high blood pressure) (Rössler, 2012; Toker and Biron, 2012). Job burnout also may impact work efficiency, organizational satisfaction and morale levels, and turnover (Shanafelt et al., 2012; Weng et al., 2011; Wong and Laschinger, 2015). Research has shown that teachers are at particularly high risk of job burnout, thus the phenomenon directly affects the psychological health of not only teachers but also their students, potentially causing social and behavioral problems (Hakanen et al., 2008; Hastings and Bham, 2003; Kokkinos, 2007). Teacher burnout is affected by multiple factors including work environment, personality, treatment, and emotional adjustability (Kokkinos, 2007). The impact of work–family conflict on teacher job burnout has received increasing attention from scholars in recent years (Burke and Greenglass, 2001).

Work–family conflict is defined by the intersection of occupational and private life. Work–family conflict can make fulfilling responsibilities at home difficult due to constraints imposed by work demands, and vice versa (Crouter, 1984; McMillan et al., 2011). Greenhaus and Beutel proposed two directional dimensions in 1985: the conflict between work and family caused by work demands (work–family conflict) and the conflict between work and family caused by family demands (family–work conflict) (Carlson et al., 2000; Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985). Numerous studies have shown that work–family conflict leads to job burnout in individuals who cannot cope with dual roles on the job and at home (Adams et al., 1996; Burke and Greenglass, 2001; Montgomery et al., 2006). Not all individuals are disposed to burnout at the same level, however, even those under identical working conditions, so understanding the personal factors affecting job burnout and what roles these personal factors may play between work pressure and job burnout is very important.

Influenced by positive psychology, American organizational psychologist Luthans and his colleagues proposed the “psychological capital” concept in 2004 as consisting of four core components: self-efficacy, optimism, resiliency, and hope (Luthans et al., 2004; Luthans and Youssef, 2004). Luthans (2002) asserts that these four psychological structures work both independently and in tandem. Later research by Cheung et al. (2011) showed that psychological capital can negatively predict depersonalization, and further research by Peng et al. (2013) on nurses showed that psychological capital can affect, to considerable extent, all dimensions of job burnout.

The specific function of personal factors (psychological capital) between work environment factors (work–family conflict) and work pressure results (job burnout) remain somewhat under debate. Xanthopoulou et al. (2007) suggest that personal factors play mediating roles between work environment factors and job burnout, but others believe that personal factors may moderate the effect of work environment on job burnout. Hobfoll (1989) found that work requirements can consume valuable resources in individuals with negative effect, but that individuals who have sufficient personal resources can indeed avoid burnout. Similarly, Van Yperen and Snijders identified a moderating effect of self-efficacy between work requirements and psychological heath. Pierce and Gardner (2004) found that self-esteem can relieve depression and work dissatisfaction caused by stressful job requirements. To this effect, psychological capital represents a resource that is consumed due to continuous conflict between work and family, where overconsumption leads to job burnout; as such, enhancing psychological capital to mitigate work–family conflict may prevent or relieve job burnout. These factors and the relationships between them, as expressed in Chinese university teachers, were the primary focus of this study.

Methods

Participants and procedure

The participants included 357 university teachers from two national key universities in Beijing, which consisted of 197 women and 168 men. The ages of the participants ranged from 29 to 39 years, with a mean of 35.14 (standard deviation (SD) = 2.33) years. Participants were told that they were engaging in a psychological investigation in which the items accepted no correct or incorrect answers, and their names can be omitted from the questionnaires. Participants completed the questionnaires in a classroom environment with face-to-face pencil and paper format. Participants received a souvenir as compensation. A total of 357 scales were distributed and collected; all scales were valid.

Measurements

The work–family conflict

We employed the work–family conflict scale developed by Carlson et al. (2000). This scale consists of two sub-scales, namely, work-to-family conflict scale and family-to-work conflict scale, and each sub-scale consists of nine items. Responses were made on a 5-point Likert-type scale. The work-to-family conflict scale measures the work-to-family direction of conflict. An example item is “When I get home from work I am often too frazzled to participate in family activities/responsibilities.” The family-to-work conflict scale measures the family-to-work direction of conflict. An example item is “Tension and anxiety from my family life often weakens my ability to do my job.” The work–family conflict scale was translated into Chinese, and its reliability and validity were reported in previous studies (Ling and Poweli, 2001; Xie et al., 2007). In the current study, Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the two sub-scales were 0.81 and 0.82, respectively.

Psychological capital

Psychological capital was measured by the 24-item psychological capital questionnaire (PCQ) (Luthans et al., 2007). This instrument includes six items for each of the four components of hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism measured on a 6-point scale, from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree). Sample items are as follows: efficacy—“I feel confident helping to set targets/goals in my work area”; hope—“If I should find myself in a jam at work, I could think of many ways to get out of it”; resilience—“I usually take stressful things at work in stride”; and optimism—“When things are uncertain for me at work, I usually expect the best.” Scale scores are the sum of items with reverse coding of relevant items. PCQ was translated into Chinese and widely used in previous studies (Cheung et al., 2011; Luthans et al., 2005). In this study, Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the four sub-scales were 0.71, 0.82, 0.76, and 0.70, respectively.

Job burnout

We assessed job burnout with the Maslach Burnout Inventory–General Survey (MBI-GS) (Schaufeli et al., 1996). This measure is composed of 16 items rated on a 7-point Likert-type scale from 1 (never) to 7 (daily). The MBI-GS has three sub-scales: emotional exhaustion (five items; e.g. “I feel used up at the end of the workday”), cynicism (five items; e.g. “I have become less enthusiastic about my work”), and reduced professional efficacy (six items; e.g. “In my opinion, I am good at my job”). Together, the sub-scales of the MBI-GS provide a three-dimensional perspective on burnout. MBI-GS was translated in Chinese and demonstrated adequate reliability (Peng et al., 2016). The alpha coefficients for the three sub-scales were 0.91, 0.87, and 0.82 in this study.

Results

Descriptive data

Table 1 shows the mean values, standard deviation, and inter-correlations of the variables used. When Table 1 is examined, it is seen that there are significant correlations between all dimensions of work–family conflict, psychological capital, and job burnout. t test revealed that work-to-family conflict is significantly higher than family-to-work conflict (t = 30.84, p < 0.01).

Table 1.

Intercorrelations among study variables.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
1. Work to family conflict	1
2. Family to work conflict	0.68	1
3. Efficacy	−0.2	−0.15	1
4. Hope	−0.17	−0.2	0.54	1
5. Resilience	−0.18	−0.17	0.43	0.54	1
6. Optimism	−0.18	−0.19	0.32	0.46	0.4	1
7. Emotional exhaustion	0.29	0.34	−0.21	−0.38	−0.28	−0.29	1
8. Cynicism	0.33	0.37	−0.25	−0.44	−0.26	−0.35	0.71	1
9. Reduced personal efficacy	0.26	0.25	−0.30	−0.29	−0.28	−0.22	0.1	0.2	1
Mean	26.91	18.53	25.54	25.41	25.38	24.30	16.50	10.13	19.66
SD	6.65	5.96	5.28	4.50	3.89	3.35	5.70	4.48	8.02

SD: standard deviation.

Correlation coefficients were all significant at 0.05.

Test of the mediation model of psychological capital

Following the steps of the mediation procedure (see Table 2) first, it was verified that work–family conflict and psychological capital were negatively related (b₁ = −0.29, p < 0.01). Then it was verified that psychological capital and job burnout revealed a negative relationship (b₂ = −0.53, p < 0.01). To test the third and last steps of mediation procedure, hierarchical regression analysis was done (Baron and Kenny, 1986). The results of the hierarchical regression analysis demonstrated that work–family conflict was positively associated with job burnout (b₃ = 0.51, p < 0.01). When psychological capital and work–family conflict were taken together in the regression analysis, the regression coefficient between work–family conflict and job burnout is still significant (b₄ = 0.38, p < 0.01). The 95 percent confidence intervals (CIs) for b₃ and b₄ overlapped, which suggested the change of the regression coefficient between work–family conflict and job burnout was not significant when psychological capital was together in the regression analysis. According to Baron and Kenny (1986), this result indicated no significant mediation. Sobel test also revealed an insignificant mediation effect (Sobel = 4.46, p > 0.05).

Table 2.

Mediation test of psychological capital.

	Dependent	Independent	b	SE	t	95% CI
Model 1	Psychological capital	work–family conflict	−0.29	0.058	−4.96**	−0.17 to −0.40
Model 2	Job burnout	Psychological capital	−0.53	0.046	−11.52**	−0.44 to −0.62
Model 3	Job burnout	Work–family conflict	0.51	0.054	9.41**	0.41 to 0.62
Model 4	Job burnout	Work–family conflict	0.38	0.050	7.74**	0.29 to 0.48
Model 4	Job burnout	Psychological capital	−0.44	0.044	−10.06**	−0.35 to −0.53

SE: standard error; CI: confidence interval.

p < 0.01.

Test of the moderation model of psychological capital

To test the moderating effect of psychological capital on work–family conflict and job burnout relationship, hierarchical regression procedures were performed (Baron and Kenny, 1986). All variables were standardized before testing for moderating effect to reduce problems related to multicollinearity between the interaction term and the main effects (Frazier et al., 2004). Work–family conflict and psychological capital were entered into the regression equation successively. Then, at step 3, the interaction of work–family conflict × psychological capital was added. The results of these analyses are presented in Table 3. It is seen that the interaction between work–family conflict and psychological capital significantly predicted job burnout in the third step (β = −0.10, p < 0.05), which indicates a significant moderation effect.

Table 3.

Hierarchical regression analysis predicting job burnout.

	Independent	β	t	95% CI
Step 1	Work–family conflict	0.45	9.41**	0.35 to 0.54
Step 2	Psychological capital	−0.44	−10.06**	−0.35 to −0.53
Step 3	Work–family conflict × psychological capital	−0.10	−2.41*	−0.02 to −0.19

CI: confidence interval.

p < 0.05.

To illustrate the effect of work–family conflict and psychological capital interaction on job burnout, we plotted the regression of job burnout on work–family conflict at high and low levels of psychological capital (see Figure 1). Consistent with the procedures outlined by Kong et al. (2013), we utilized a simple slope formula for regression of work–family conflict on job burnout using the high (above the mean) and low (below the mean) values for psychological capital (Kong et al., 2013). Figure 1 shows a significant positive relationship between work–family conflict and job burnout at low levels of psychological capital (β = 0.51, p < 0.01). At high levels of psychological capital, the relationship between work–family conflict and job burnout was significant (β = 0.32, p < 0.01). The regression coefficient, however, was less than that in the low psychological capital group. Hence, the results also suggest that psychological capital moderated the impact of work–family conflict on job burnout.

Figure 1.

The moderating effect of psychological capital.

Discussion

As mentioned above, the main goal of this study was to explore the function of psychological capital as it relates to work–family conflict and job burnout. We used hierarchical regression analysis to determine the moderating effect of psychological capital, and simple slopes testing to further examine the nature of the interactions between psychological capital and work–family conflict. Results showed that work-to-family conflict is higher than family-to-work conflict in university teachers, that is, teachers’ work–family boundaries have asymmetric permeability, where work requirements and responsibility more likely interfere with family life than vice versa. This observation is relatively consistent with existing research (Anderson et al., 2002; Frone et al., 1992). It is likely that individuals typically prioritize work demands over family demands (Yang et al., 2000), especially teachers, who are given prominent moral and ethical responsibilities on the job. When conflict exists between family and work, the university environment (and very nature of the teaching profession) implicitly or explicitly requires that work come first.

Our results show that both work–family and family-work conflict can significantly affect job burnout, and that the four dimensions of psychological capital are significantly negatively correlated with the three dimensions of job burnout. Teachers shuttle back and forth between two relatively independent boundaries of work and family and undertake multiple roles in either area, but as human beings their total amount of psychological resources are limited of course, playing two different roles well and simultaneously depletes these resources (Cinamon and Rich, 2005; Zhao et al., 2014). Naturally, work–family conflict is an important occupational pressure source for teachers and can lead to job burnout (Hammer et al., 2003; Xiao et al., 2014). Individual teachers who have high levels of psychological capital tend to find it easier to manage their work responsibilities, have more positive expectations for the future, believe in their abilities to cope with challenges, and generally avoid job burnout compared to individuals with low levels of psychological capital.

In short, we found that psychological capital significantly moderates the impact of work–family conflict on job burnout, and that psychological capital more closely resembles a relatively stable trait than a fluctuating amount of psychological resources (Avey et al., 2011). Work–family conflict as a consumption of psychological resources showed limited influence on psychological capital, but inherent level of psychological capital moderated the effects of work–family conflict on job burnout. The conservation of resource theory supports the idea that people who easily lose psychological resources or cannot readily obtain expected returns are more likely to experience job burnout. People tend to work hard to obtain and keep resources that they value (e.g. time and abilities,) which then help them to effectively cope with pressure in their working environment and thus reduce their risk for job burnout (De Cuyper et al., 2012; Hobfoll, 2011; Hobfoll et al., 1990). Psychological capital is one of these valuable resources that can supplement the energy consumed by work–family conflict and stave off job burnout when it is present in the individual in sufficient quantities.

This study was not without limitations. First, this study had a cross-sectional research design employed to show variables that were related to each other, but failed to successfully test causal effects. Further longitudinal or experimental research studies remain necessary to fully determine the moderating effect of psychological capital in the relationship between work–family conflict and job burnout. Second, self-reported measurements were used to assess all variables, which may have made the study vulnerable to the effects of common-method variance. Previous studies have shown, though, that common-method variance usually attenuates observed interactions instead of producing artificial interaction when the study involves moderators (Podsakoff et al., 2003). Thus, the moderating effect found in this study may actually be an underestimation of the true interaction effect of work–family conflict and psychological capital.

Education is an interpersonal and interactive activity, and teacher job burnout may affect student development. To avoid teacher burnout, the university working environment must be improved and teachers should be given more material and emotional support, particularly when they must resolve conflict between work and family. Measures should be designed and enacted to enhance teachers’ psychological capital to allow them to better cope with conflict in general and avoid job burnout.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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