Burnout en trabajadores de ONGs que ejecutan política social en Chile

Abstract

In Chile, social policies are implemented mostly by NGOs that collaborate with the State. This is the case of psychosocial programs. As described in the literature, workers in this area must respond to the demands of multiple institutions in addition to those of users, which generate great pressure on them. Studies indicate that work in social interventions is critical and high risk for mental health. These workers have greater emotional exhaustion and feel more psychologically exhausted than workers in other fields. For this reason, this study investigates burnout in psychosocial workers. We contrasted a model that examines the association between the components of professional burnout with being a female worker, the permanence in the job and the intention to resign. 195 psychosocial workers were surveyed in the region of Valparaíso, Chile. Contrary to what was hypothesized, results do not show a higher level of psychological exhaustion in women. The permanence in the work shows a nonlinear positive association with burnout, being higher in workers with greater instability due to the closure of programs (possible closure between 2 to 3 years). The variables that are associated with the intention to resign are the psychological exhaustion and disillusionment with work. These results are discussed in relation to the professional burnout model and the public policies of social programs.