Construct Validity of the Maslach Burnout Inventory: A Critical Review and Reconceptualization

This article presents an evaluation of the construct validity of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). The authors base this critique on previously published findings and data collected through five studies carried out during an eight-year period, for which 328 social workers acted as respondents. Factor analyses and correlational studies designed to test predictions provided fairly consistent evidence for the utility of the MBI subscale measures of emotional exhaustion, personal accomplishment, and depersonalization. Additional analyses supported a reconceptualization of burnout and the MBI, one that regards exhaustion as the essence of burnout and treats accomplishment and depersonalization as related variables, but not as elements of burnout.