Burnout Among the Addiction Counseling Workforce: The Differential Roles of Mindfulness and Values-Based Processes and Worksite Factors

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment

Volume

40

Issue

1

Publisher

Elsevier

Publication Date

6-6-2011

First Page

21

Last Page

26

Abstract

Although work-site factors have been shown to be a consistent predictor of burnout, the importance of mindfulness and values-based processes among addiction counselors has been little examined. In this study, we explored how strongly experiential avoidance, cognitive fusion, and values commitment related to burnout after controlling for well-established work-site factors (job control, coworker support, supervisor support, salary, workload, and tenure). We conducted a cross-sectional survey among 699 addiction counselors working for urban substance abuse treatment providers in six states of the United States. Results corroborated the importance of work-site factors for burnout reduction in this specific population, but we found that mindfulness and values-based processes had a stronger and more consistent relationship with burnout as compared with work-site factors. We conclude that interventions that target experiential avoidance, cognitive fusion, and values commitment may provide a possible new direction for the reduction of burnout among addiction counselors.

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