Burnout, Informal Social Support
and Psychological Distress among
Social Workers
Esteban Sa´nchez-Moreno1,*, Iria-Noa de La Fuente Rolda´n2,
Lorena P. Gallardo-Peralta3, and Ana Barro´ n Lo´ pez de Roda4
1
Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Work, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid,
Spain
2
Department of Social Work, Faculty of Social Work, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid,
Spain
3
Department of Philosophy and Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tarapaca´,
Arica, Chile
4
Department of Social Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Complutense University of Madrid,
Madrid, Spain
*
Correspondence to Esteban Sa´nchez Moreno, Ph.D., Department of Sociology, Faculty of
Social Work, Complutense University of Madrid, Campus de Somosaguas, 28223 Pozuelo,
Madrid, Spain. E-mail: esteban.sanchez@cps.ucm.es
Abstract
Previous research has shown that social workers are a profession at risk of suffering a high
incidence of so-called burnout syndrome. Burnout is in turn related to psychological distress.
Social support from informal sources is a factor with potential to reduce the psychological
distress caused by burnout. However, the previous research has not considered
informal social support in sufficient detail. This article, using a cross-sectional study, analyses
the relationship between burnout, informal social support and psychological distress
in a sample of social workers in Spain (n ¼ 189). The results show a high incidence of
psychological distress and burnout, above all in terms of Emotional Exhaustion (EE). The
results of the hierarchical regression analysis confirm the importance of informal social
support as a variable negatively related to distress, even in the presence of burnout.
Surprisingly, organisational variables were not associated with distress. Longitudinal
and qualitative research is necessary to examine the nature of this relationship in detail.
Keywords: Burnout, social workers, distress, social support
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