Emotional dissonance and burnout among child welfare workers: The moderating role of social support from colleagues, supervisors, and organization

Summary Occupational burnout has significant costs for individuals, employers, and the society. Knowledge about risk and protective factors is therefore highly important. This study examined emotional dissonance as a risk factor and colleague, supervisor, and organizational support as protective factors regarding burnout among child welfare workers. It was expected that emotional dissonance would be positively related to burnout, and that social support would attenuate the magnitude of the association. Based on the Psychosocial safety climate model, it was also suggested that organizational support would be negatively associated with levels of emotional dissonance and thereby also burnout. Findings The study was based on a cross-sectional probability sample of employees working in the child welfare service in Oslo municipality, Norway (N = 678). Emotional dissonance was positively related to burnout. In contrast to expectations, the interaction analyses showed a reverse buffering effect where the examined sources of social support intensified the association between emotional dissonance and burnout. Organizational support had an indirect association with burnout through emotional dissonance. Applications While the cross-sectional nature of the study does not allow for any conclusions about causal effects, the findings indicate that other stress-buffering job resources than social support are more beneficial in efforts focusing on reducing the detrimental impact of emotional demands in child welfare work. However, more knowledge concerning the actual effectiveness of receiving support is necessary to draw more definite conclusions.