Job Satisfaction and Burnout among Greek Professionals Providing Services for Children with Disabilities

This study aimed to examine the perceived levels of job satisfaction (JS) and burnout (BO) among Greek professionals providing services for children with disabilities. The instruments used were the Maslach Burnout Inventory-MBI, the Employee Satisfaction Inventory-ESI and a demographic questionnaire. Τhe sample consisted of 150 professionals (125 female and 25 male) from various specialties (occupational therapists, speech therapists, physiotherapists, psychologists, adapted physical educators, special educators), whose mean age was 32.35 years (age range from 22 to 55 years old). Participants signed the informed consent and responded online to the administered scales. The statistical package SPSS 20.0 was used and the level of significance was set to .05. The analyses revealed that the participants, in terms of job satisfaction, were most satisfied with the ‘job itself,’ moderately satisfied with ‘working conditions,’ ‘supervision’ and ‘organization as a whole’ and less satisfied with ‘promotion’ and ‘pay.’ Furthermore, participants experienced moderate burnout symptoms in all three dimensions. Concerning gender differences, women exhibited significant lower levels of ‘emotional exhaustion’ (F= 5.770, p= .018 και η 2 p= .038) and higher levels of job satisfaction with ‘working conditions’ (F= 6.349, p= .013 και η 2 p= .041) than men. Moreover, the participants who were 30 years old or younger were significantly less satisfied with the ‘supervision’ (F= 5.533, p= .020, η 2 p= .036) than those who were above 30 years old. Future researchers may consider longitudinal studies, with representative samples, to relate the professionals’ perceived levels of JS and BO in conjunction with the quality of their services, as well as the possible similarities or differences by gender, age, specialty and geographical area.

Keywords: job satisfaction, burnout, children, disability, Greece.