Maslach Burnout Inventory [MBI-22]

Questionnaire Description

The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI-22) is a self-report questionnaire used to assess occupational burnout and the feelings and attitudes individuals experience in relation to their work.

The version included in the provided document consists of 22 items, through which respondents indicate how frequently they experience specific work-related feelings, attitudes, and situations.

On the first page of the source document, the questionnaire is presented in a version adapted to the educational context, with statements referring to teaching, school, and interactions with students. The following pages include corresponding wording referring to patients, representing its application within a healthcare or care-related professional context.

The MBI approaches burnout as a multidimensional phenomenon rather than relying solely on a single overall indicator.

Objective

The primary objective of the MBI-22 is the systematic assessment of different aspects of occupational burnout and the way individuals experience their relationship with their work and with the people they interact with professionally.

The questionnaire explores experiences such as emotional and physical exhaustion resulting from work, fatigue at the end of the working day, stress associated with direct contact with students or patients, and attitudes toward the individuals with whom professionals work.

At the same time, it assesses more positive aspects of professional experience, including perceived effectiveness, the ability to understand others, the creation of a positive interpersonal atmosphere, and a sense of meaningful accomplishment through work.

Dimensions of Burnout

The content of the 22 items covers three major areas of professional experience:

Emotional Exhaustion: refers to feelings of emotional and physical depletion associated with the demands of work. It includes experiences such as feeling exhausted by one’s job, feeling fatigued when facing another working day, and perceiving work as requiring considerable personal effort.

Depersonalization: refers to more detached, impersonal, or emotionally distant attitudes toward the people with whom professionals interact as part of their work. The available material includes statements concerning becoming more insensitive toward others or developing greater emotional distance.

Personal Accomplishment: concerns perceptions of professional competence, effectiveness, and achievement. It includes aspects such as effectively dealing with problems, understanding the feelings of students or patients, positively influencing others, and feeling that worthwhile things have been accomplished through one’s work.

Together, these three dimensions provide a multidimensional profile of the respondent’s professional experience.

Scoring

In the version presented on the first page of the source document, the 22 statements are evaluated using a seven-point frequency scale ranging from “Never” to “Every day.”

Pages 2 and 3 present a corresponding version using the following numerical response scale:

0 – Never
1 – A few times a year
2 – Once a month or less
3 – Two or three times a month
4 – Once a week
5 – Several times a week
6 – Every day

Scoring therefore reflects the frequency with which respondents experience specific work-related feelings and attitudes.

When interpreting the results, the different dimensions should be considered separately. Items reflecting personal accomplishment have a different interpretive direction from those assessing exhaustion and interpersonal detachment.

Data Analysis

Analysis of MBI-22 data can be conducted at the level of the individual dimensions, allowing researchers to describe different patterns of occupational burnout.

Descriptive statistics, including means, standard deviations, medians, and ranges, may be calculated for the individual dimensions.

Where appropriate to the research design, the internal consistency of the dimensions can also be examined using suitable reliability measures.

Scores may be compared across professional or demographic groups and examined in relation to other variables included in the research design.

Applications

The MBI-22 can be used to investigate occupational burnout in professional environments characterized by substantial interpersonal and emotional demands.

The source document illustrates two such professional contexts: education, where items refer to students, teaching, and school, and healthcare or care-related work, where corresponding statements refer to patients.

The questionnaire may be used in research examining factors associated with occupational burnout, differences between professional groups, and changes in burnout-related experiences across different periods of time.

Greek Adaptation

The educational version included in the source document is explicitly identified as:

“Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) – Maslach & Jackson, 1986. Translation and Adaptation into Greek: Kokkinos (2006).”

This information documents the attribution provided for the specific Greek version contained in the uploaded material.

References

Maslach, C., & Jackson, S. E. (1986). Maslach Burnout Inventory Manual. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.

Kokkinos (2006). Greek translation and adaptation of the Maslach Burnout Inventory, as cited in the provided questionnaire.