Burnout among Dutch reformed pastors.

The present study examined the degree of burnout among Dutch reformed pastors and aspects that may be conducive to the onset of burnout. They were asked to report how difficult they found their tasks and what options they had to alleviate the pressure of work they experienced. Compared with other human service professionals the results show that pastors have relatively high scores on emotional exhaustion and relatively low scores on depersonalization. Pastors have relatively low scores on personal accomplishment. Those who say they are experiencing severe pressure of work appear to have high scores on the three burnout dimensions. Role ambiguity and lack of social support appear to intensify reported feelings of burnout. This article concludes by discussing some of the pastor's own suggestions as to how to relieve work pressure.

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The concept of burnout was first used by Freudenberger in 1974. He concluded that young social workers who were employed in substance abuse projects could be subject to depression after a few years. Although these professionals were initially found to be highly suitable for their jobs, it was, as Freudenberger posited, quite likely that their emotional state was caused by increased feelings of powerlessness. It was very striking that the subjects of his study did not harbor such feelings during the weekends or holidays.

In the most widely used definition (Maslach, 1993), burnout is described as "... a psychological syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment that can occur among individuals who work with other people in some capacity. Emotional exhaustion refers to feelings of being emotionally overextended and depleted of one's emotional resources. Depersonalization refers to a negative, callous, of excessively detached response to other people, who are usually the recipients of one's services of care" (pp. 20-21).

Schaufeli, Maslach, and Marek (1993) found five aspects that corresponded to the definitions of burnout they had studied. First, people suffering from burnout showed symptoms of restlessness and dissatisfaction, such as emotional exhaustion, fatigue, and depression. Second, both mental and behavioral problems stood out, although sometimes there were physical complaints as well. Third, burnout was connected with the jobs of the persons involved. Fourth, it also appeared that the symptoms of burnout showed up in people who had not previously had any psychical complaints. Last, people suffering from burnout appeared to be less effective in their daily work, and work performance suffered because of negative attitudes and behavior.

More often than not, people displaying symptoms of burnout have rather low opinions of themselves. Moreover, they do not have a positive opinion of their work performance, which in turn has a negative influence on their self-esteem and self-respect (Karsten, 2000). People who have fallen victim to burnout usually do not like their job any longer. They have become void of energy and have no zest for life. In some cases they do not even take pleasure in their hobbies. They cannot rid themselves of the problems they are having in their jobs, and they even shrink from daily routines such as posting a letter or paying a bill. They are unable to focus on anything, and organizing things has become a problem for them. Another striking feature of people suffering from burnout is that mental organizational principles seem to have abandoned them: they cannot distinguish between essentials and details, let alone set priorities. They sleep poorly and are no longer able to relax. As a result, they may develop neurotic complaints, such as feelings of guilt, anxiety, depression, or obsession (Karsten, 2000).

Studies on Burnout Among Pastors in the USA and the Netherlands

Hall (1997) published an outstanding article in which he described the literature on the personal functioning of pastors in the United States. He divided this functioning into six areas, three of which include emotional well being, stress, and burnout. Emotional well being seems to be negatively related to unrealistic expectations, time constraints and lack of time (Ellison & Matilla, 1983). York (1982) found that pastors' mean scores on the Maslach Burnout Inventory did not differ from those of human service professionals in general. The question is whether findings of stress and burnout among American pastors apply to pastors in other Western societies. Studies in the Netherlands about burnout among various human service professionals have produced results comparable to those in the United States. For instance, Brouwers and Tomic (2000) showed that teacher burnout was significantly related to classroom management (cf. Emmer & Hickman, 1991). In a study on burnout among carertakers for the elderly (Evers, Tomic, & Brouwers, 2001) evidence was found that aggressive clients' behavior contributed to the occurrence of burnout symptoms among staff working with the elderly (cf. Lanza, 1988, 1992, 1995). We may therefore conclude that burnout is a phenomenon that occurs among various human service professionals both in the United States and in other Western societies such as in the Netherlands, where studies have been published on burnout among teachers, nurses, doctors, social workers, police officers, and security officers (Schaufeli, Maslach & Marek, 1993).

Muller (1992) states that pastors should be included in the category of human service workers because of the various roles and activities that make up a pastor's job, such as the roles of counselor, teacher, preacher, and manager. In fulfilling these roles, pastors are clearly involved with other people, working not only for them but also with them. Consequently, it may be assumed that pastors in the Netherlands are likely to suffer from burnout symptoms to the same extent as other human service professionals do.

Hall (1997) posits that a review of existing empirical studies should serve as a signpost for future research on the psychological and spiritual difficulties experienced by pastors. In a qualitative study involving 398 senior pastors, Meek, McMinn, Burnett, and Brower (2001) state that the word clergy appears in only four of the more than 22,000 articles published in APA journals in the past twelve years. The current situation in the Netherlands is almost identical to the one depicted by Hall (1997) and Meek et al. (2001), in so far as there are scarcely any studies describing pastors' psychological functioning in an increasingly hectic society characterized by materialism and secularization. In our study, we found four publications on this subject in the Dutch language. Keizer (1988) wrote about job satisfaction among Dutch pastors; we also found publications focusing on pastors, power and powerlessness (Brouwer, 1995), stress and pressure of work (Leest, 1997); and finally, an article by Van der Wal (2000) dealing with Roman Catholic clergy who had become worn out by their jobs. Further data have been acquired among pastors in the Netherlands revealing that they experience work pressure, increasing workloads, role ambiguity, a lack of appreciation by parishioners or support from colleagues (Karsten, 2000); in the literature, these appear to significantly correlate with burnout.

Work Conditions Among Human Service Professionals and Pastors in the Netherlands

Teachers, nurses, and pastors have at least two things in common: first, they work closely with people, and second, their work in the classroom, the hospital, or the parish is becoming increasingly difficult. The increase in work pressure may cause a human service professional to suffer psychological complaints resulting in full of partial disability.

Work-related mental strain among various categories of professionals has been examined both in the Netherlands and abroad. For instance, in the Netherlands Van Veldhoven and Broersen (1999) examined work pressure and work-related stress among the Dutch working population. Their study involved 15 branches of industry and 8100 employees. The results suggested that employees who had received advanced technical or academic training (at a technical school or a university) were, relatively speaking, confronted with large amounts of work and a demanding work pace more of-ten than counterparts who had attended only secondary or primary school. The group that had received advanced technical or academic training also displayed a greater degree of emotional exhaustion, in particular when working in education and the nursing profession. Van Veldhoven and Broersen (1999) concluded that the emotionally taxing work performed by these professionals, combined with severe work pressure, resulted in high levels of absenteeism and disability owing to mental strain. Long-lasting exposure to emotionally taxing tasks, which have to be performed under stressful conditions, may lead to the depletion of someone's energy and resources, commonly called "burnout."

Keizer (1988) shows that pastors suffer from severe work pressure. An important part of a pastor's job is "pastoral care", which means that he or she is confronted with the personal problems, relationship problems, illness, suffering and death of other people. This aspect of the pastor's job may be emotionally taxing. In our study we have attempted to explore whether pastors suffer from emotional exhaustion, the most striking symptom of burnout, and if so, to what degree.

In his study, Brouwer (1995) found that pastors in the Dutch Reformed Church had an average workweek of 55 to 60 hours. Assuming that pastors spend this amount of time engaged in their tasks, the question raised by Brouwer was whether the number of hours they work is related to their experience of work pressure. Brouwer established adequate proof that these two factors are related in his study. Pastors do experience severe work pressure because of the number of hours they spend working. In the same study, pastors also indicated that they experience work pressure when much-valued clerical activities outside the parish have to be abandoned. A poorly organized work situation is another factor that contributes to severe work pressure, for example when there is no clear job description and no timetable for the various activities to be performed. A much heard complaint among pastors is, "I do not know where my work starts and where it ends." Brouwer (1995) states that the job of a pastor may also be characterized by tension and strain. Most of his respondents indicated they had experienced a personal crisis or a period during which they were overworked. His study demonstrates that pastors face daily pressures caused by large quantities of work, their work situation, or the unrealistically high expectations of their parishioners.

A pastor's field of action consists of various tasks with accompanying roles (Muller, 1992). The pastor must be able to give consolation and support to people wrestling with problems and crucial questions; he must be an efficient manager capable of getting along well with parishioners; he must be able to recruit volunteers and kindle enthusiasm in them. He is expected to plan and organize work well; moreover, he should be able to write a good sermon, and to conduct appealing religious services. He must be able to discuss matters of religion and faith, and at primary schools he must teach children catechism. If a pastor does not live up to the expectations of parishioners, role ambiguity may develop. Brouwer (1995) found that recognition and appreciation are very important for the pastor. The respondents call the parishioners' appreciation an important factor from which they derive feelings of self-respect. Appreciation and respect for their work appear to be motivating factors and incentives in their lives. Does this also apply to appreciation expressed by their colleagues? How important is peer support?

The characteristics of their work and related questions justify conducting a systematic investigation into the degree to which pastors exhibit symptoms of burnout. The most important goal of this study is to try to find out whether, and if so, to what degree, pastors suffer from burnout. If the facts are indicative of the existence of burnout among pastors, a comparison will then be made between burnout among pastors and burnout among other human service workers. Part of our research among Dutch pastors will also focus on the question raised by Hall (1997) as to whether pastors experience more stress and diminished emotional well being. Our study will also examine which conditions are related to burnout among pastors and the possible influence of these conditions on the onset of burnout. In this connection, we will refer to work pressure, role ambiguity, and social support. We will furthermore examine which factors of a pastor's work are related to work pressure. The five main tasks of a pastor that will be taken into account are administration, management, pastoral care, catechism, and education. We will try to find out which of these five main tasks pastors regard as difficult. We will also look at ways of making the pastors' work less difficult. Finally, we will look into a possible correspondence between burnout symptoms and the respondents' gender and age.

METHOD

Participants

The participants were Dutch reformed pastors registered as such in the Dutch Reformed Church annual ("Generale Synode," 1998) and working in a parish. About 1210 pastors were sent a questionnaire. A total of 726 questionnaires, or 60%, were completed and sent back to us. A total of 592 respondents were male (82% of the respondents), and a total of 130 (18%) were female. The mean age of the pastors was 46, the youngest was 27 and the oldest was 66.

Measures

Burnout. As stated before, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment are the dimensions of the burnout construct. We used the Dutch version of the Maslach and Jackson questionnaire (MBI-NL) to measure the level of burnout among the pastors who responded (Maslach & Jackson, 1981; Schaufeli & Van Horn, 1995). This self-report instrument consists of 20 questions, 8 items measuring emotional exhaustion, 5 items measuring depersonalization, and 7 items measuring personal accomplishment. The items are measured on a 7-point scale, ranging from "never" to "every day." Scores on the scales are added separately. High scores on emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, and low scores on personal accomplishment are indicative of burnout. An example of a question from the emotional exhaustion sub scale is "I feel empty at the end of a working day." The following item is taken flora the depersonalization sub scale, "I really do not care what will become of my parishioners." An example item on the personal accomplishment sub-scale is "I have the feeling that I have accomplished many valuable things in this job." The items were written and the survey administered in Dutch, although they are presented here in English.

Work-related issues. Work-related variables are work pressure, role ambiguity, and social support (peers and home). The items were measured on a 6-point scale using a "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree" response format. We used the following six items to measure work pressure. "I can organize my work in such a way that I will be ready with time to spare." "Unexpected tasks prevent me from planning my work well." "Work will be left to me that should have been finished." "I come across so many questions in my job that I have hardly any free time." "It is difficult for me to combine the pastor's job with my household duties." "My work is so much fragmented that I only have time to partly prepare most of the tasks."

We measured role ambiguity with two items. The first was "In my opinion it is hard to live up to expectations of my work as a pastor." And second: "I am confronted with many different expectations of my work as a pastor."

Five items measured social support. "If I'm terribly busy at work, my wife/husband takes over my household tasks," "I can talk to my wife/husband about my worries and doubts about my work," "My wife/husband is always ready to help out if I'm preoccupied with my work," "Other pastors are always ready to substitute for me when I ask them to," and "If I have a problem, I can always turn to another pastor for advice or help."

Finally, the questionnaire included two open questions concerning the difficulty of the job, and ways of possibly lightening the pastor's burden.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Burnout Symptoms Among Pastors

The main purpose of this study was to examine whether, and to what degree, pastors suffered from burnout symptoms and work-related issues. Our findings are described in this section.

As far as the first dimension of burnout is concerned, the results show that 11% of the respondents report suffering frequently from emotional exhaustion. Extrapolation to the entire Dutch population of pastors would mean that about 140 of them suffer from emotional exhaustion. Fewer than 3% of the pastors indicate suffering feelings of depersonalization, i.e. behaving in a cold, cynical, and callous way towards their parishioners. The majority of the pastors (62%) report feeling accomplished in their work, i.e. they are of the opinion that they ore quite skilled in their profession. Percentages were determined by adding the categories "often," "very often," and "always."

Regarding the relationships between the three dimensions of burnout, we may conclude that the more pastors suffer from emotional exhaustion, the more they show symptoms of depersonalization, and the less they feel a sense of personal accomplishment. Feelings of personal accomplishment also diminish when the level of depersonalization increases (see Table 1).

Comparison Between Pastors and Other Human Service Professionals

We furthermore intended to compare the level of burnout among pastors to the burnout levels of a reference group composed of police officers, carers for the elderly, teachers, and other human service workers. Because the current study has more than one test, we adjusted the alpha level downward to consider chance capitalization (Sankoh, Huque, & Dubey, 1997; Tabachnick & Fidell, 1996). The results can be found in Table 2. The results show that the responding pastors have significantly higher scores on emotional exhaustion than the category "reference group" (t = 6.64; df= 1378, p < .001). Compared to the result of the reference group, pastors not only score lower on depersonalization (t = 8.21; df= 1588, p < .001), but also on personal accomplishment (t = 8.37; df= 1561, p < .001).

Work-Related Variables

Pressure of work, social support, and role ambiguity. The items concerning work pressure demonstrate that at least 28% of the pastors, or a total of 350 pastors, suffer from work pressure. The number of pastors suffering regularly from severe work pressure is about 160. The factor "work pressure" seems to be closely related to dimensions of burnout and appears to be one of the main stressors among our respondents. The higher the scores on work pressure are, the more the pastors report symptoms of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, the core of burnout. Work pressure has a negative correlation to personal accomplishment (Table 1).

Both home and peer support have a negative correlation to emotional exhaustion and depersonalization and a positive correlation to personal accomplishment. Two items were used to measure role ambiguity. After inspecting the results, the internal consistency was found to be unsatisfactory ([alpha] = .51). Consequently, the two items were analyzed as separate variables. The answers to the items on role ambiguity show that they are related positively to the core of burnout and negatively to personal accomplishment. The pastors who receive little social support and experience a large degree of role ambiguity (i.e. the mutual expectations between pastor and parishioners do not coincide) are very likely to report high scores on the two dimensions of burnout.

Other Factors

We also examined whether there were other factors in the lives and environments of pastors that correlated with one of more dimensions of burnout. A negative correlation between age and emotional exhaustion was found. Though the correlation is significant, less than 2% of the variance is shared. Gender does not have any correlation with burnout dimensions. Men and women are equally at risk of falling victim to burnout. The respondents who are members of the Evangelical Grouping show slightly higher scores on emotional exhaustion [F(6,726) = 2.51; p < .05], and depersonalization [F(6,726) = 3.87; p < .05] than the adherents of other denominations. Evangelical actually refers to a movement rather than to a particular grouping. Local churches are bound neither by a hierarchical church structure nor by a coordinated synod.

Taxing Tasks

The pastors involved in this study reported which tasks they look upon as being difficult and taxing. The results can be found in Table 3. In the Pastoral Care category, funerals are found to be emotionally taxing. As one of the pastors said, "A memorial service must always be fit into my weekly schedule, making it necessary to postpone other matters." Pastors would like to visit parishioners more than they are able to: "I really regret that I can only occasionally visit my parishioners. Very often I only visit them in times of crisis." Tension and stress in this category is also caused by discrepancies between mutual expectations. One respondent remarked, "In my opinion, the most difficult aspect of my work as a pastor is how to deal with my parishioners' unrealistic expectations concerning individual pastoral care." Another said, "Expectations related to individual pastoral care which I cannot fulfil make my work difficult, especially when these expectations are not explicitly worded." Yet another respondent admitted that, "Coping with evangelical tyrants is very difficult for me." We found that some respondents had difficulty coping with the idea that they had to live up to all their parishioners' expectations: "Always being there for them makes my life difficult."

Relatively speaking, many of the pastors indicated that they viewed the organizational, administrative and management tasks as the most difficult parts of their job. "The present organization of the Church, my parish, is out-of-date." In many cases, they found chairing meetings a difficult task. As one of them told us,

The rise of a new form of administration, the attempts to create a federation of Protestant churches, means an increase in the number of administrative tasks, but they produce little or no positive effects. I often have the feeling that I have to spend too much time on them. It is frustrating to see that it almost always comes to nothing.

Besides meetings characterized by laborious consultations, there are also conflicts between the pastor and the church council that lead to strain and complicate the organization of religious activities. Many respondents complain about getting stuck with the job of organizing and planning activities, particularly because they lack secretarial support and are short on volunteers: "It is difficult to find enough parishioners who are prepared to contribute their share to the parish time and again." The following quotation also underlines the difficult position of the pastor,

I do not want my church to become what is known as a 'vicars-church,' in which the pastor of vicar is the spider in the web; no, I want it to be our church, a community of believers, a congregation supported and formed by every parishioner who is capable of contributing his or her mite.

One pastor expressed his feelings of isolation in the following words: "I am often solely in charge of the whole parish. The pastor is responsible for everything." Another respondent refers to the loneliness he experiences in his job: "The diversity, the exacting nature of my work and the responsibility I have to bear are very burdensome aspects of my job." The wide range of tasks that pastors are expected to take on is regarded as a very difficult part of the job. It is both the quantity of work that pastors carry out and the fragmented nature of that work which contributes to its difficulty. As one respondent stated, "If fragmentation causes a pastor to lose all track of the situation, monitoring the various processes becomes very difficult."

Holding church services, which for many pastors is a weekly and important part of the job, contributes to the difficulties of their tasks. They regard composing a sermon as very difficult; one respondent remarked, "Sometimes I can't help feeling that I lack the necessary creativity." Others said, "You have to come up with something new every week for the same congregation," and "The religious services are difficult because you have to satisfy the needs and interests of the various alignments within the parish." In this respect, too, parishioners' unrealistic expectations are mentioned. One pastor, for instance, put the following rhetorical question: "Can you really teach people that a religious service is a gathering of the community?" Many pastors also add catechism to the list of difficult tasks. Coping with young members of the parish and motivating these 14 to 17 year-old kids is considered to be very difficult.

Solutions

We asked what the respondents thought would be necessary to improve the job of a pastor. The following answers are in Table 4. With respect to alleviating work pressure, the following suggestions were made: delegate clerical tasks, have volunteers assist by paying private visits and by helping out at memorial services, appoint one or more catechists, set up a liturgy panel, divide up the tasks carried out during religious services, and finally, get secretarial and other professional support. Pastors might be better equipped to carry out their tasks if they had proper training and supervision. Courses on time management, dealing with conflicts, discussion techniques, motivating people, and pastoral supervision were suggested. Respondents suggested that planning and organization could be improved by doing the following: clearly define the total number of tasks, concentrate on the crux of a pastor's task, institute smaller parishes, and improve annual planning. Some other respondents mentioned making a clearer distinction between work and family life, and training volunteers and members of the church council to take on some of the executive administrative tasks.

Positive Remarks

The respondents also mentioned positive aspects of their job. We left some space on the questionnaire forms for pastors to comment on matters that had not been specifically inquired about. A few of these comments are reproduced below. One respondent's remark on job satisfaction was "It is a fine job to be a pastor, but only if you do something else in addition." Another said, "After having suffered a sad loss, I was very well taken care of by my parish." Someone else said, "I like my work as a pastor and perform my duties with love, but it is a bit too stressful because sometimes I lack the time to do everything as well as I should like to do." And, finally, "I want to indicate that I am entirely satisfied performing my tasks as a pastor." Satisfaction with the job of pastor is also evident in answers to the question "lf I could do it all over again, I would choose a different profession." Only 2% of the respondents agreed with this response. However, 18% would like to become a pastor in another parish.

This article's primary aim was to examine whether and, if so, to what degree pastors suffer from symptoms of burnout, Its second aim was to explore work-related variables such as work pressure, role ambiguity, and social support. The findings of the current study are based on a rather large sample of 726 respondents. Compared to other studies, this is a noteworthy sample size. In a review of empirical burnout studies among the clergy by Hall (1997), the number of respondents ranged from about 180 to 260. Meek et al. (2001) investigated 398 pastors.

The results show that the incidence of burnout among pastors is as high as in similar professionals working with of for other people. This is consistent with York (1982), among others, who also utilized the MBI. It may therefore be concluded that pastors are equally at risk as these other professionals of suffering burnout to such a degree that they are unable to continue their work. As in other human service professions, work pressure, role ambiguity, and lack of social support seem to increase the risk of becoming a victim of the burnout syndrome. The correlation between work pressure and the core of burnout is the most significant one. This corresponds with other findings on burnout, which repeatedly suggest that severe work pressure may be significantly related to burnout (Hall, 1997; Leiter, 1993; Sparks, Cooper, Fried & Shirom, 1997). Contrary to other studies, our results did not reveal a relationship between the variable gender and burnout. The responses to our question concerning the difficulty of the job are comparable to the results obtained in previous studies on the subject. Brouwer (1995) studied the occurrence of emotional and physical exhaustion among pastors. He found a relation between the pastors' exhaustion and the trouble they experienced in motivating parishioners to participate in various tasks and activities. "The experience of getting little or even no support or commitment from the parishioners may be a source of exhaustion," Brouwer (1995, p. 27) states in his study. Our study supports his findings. The respondents' answers indicate that both discrepancies in expectations (in our questionnaire, role ambiguity) and the difficulty in motivating parishioners to participate in various tasks are to be looked upon as important stressors in a pastor's job. Brouwer (1995) also found a correlation between a pastor's negative image of the parish and depersonalization. Pastors who had gone through a personal crisis and displayed symptoms of emotional exhaustion had negative images of their parishioners as well. He did not examine whether these negative images resulted in their having a detached and cynical attitude towards their parishioners. However, in our study we found hardly any symptoms of depersonalization. There are pastors who are disappointed with the lack of assistance they receive from parishioners and their "consumer-like" attitudes. Over 28% of our respondents suffered from severe work pressure. This is in line with Van Veldhoven and Broersen's (1999) findings that persons who had been through higher education suffer relatively more from severe work pressure than their counterparts who had completed only secondary or primary school. Work pressure seems to be a fairly widespread phenomenon. Van der Leest (1997) posits that a pastor's task has become increasingly difficult, owing to secularization (more and more people are leaving the Church) accompanied by a sharp increase in the older population of the parishes. Indeed, the aging population of the parish is another taxing aspect of the job.

CONCLUSION

The various tasks of a pastor can no longer be adequately performed without the parishioners' support (delegation of tasks); however, secularization and the sharp increase in the aging population are making it difficult to delegate difficult tasks to volunteers. Cooperation with colleagues and professional support seem to be of growing importance to the adequate performance of a pastor's job.

As has been shown in the Results and Discussion section, the task that the majority of respondents found most difficult is pastoral care, which seems to go well beyond the roles mentioned by Muller (1992). In addition to pastoral care, pastors believe that organizational, administrative, and managerial tasks account for the most arduous aspects of their work. Quite a few pastors cannot meet the all demands the pastoral care makes on them and feel that they fail in their duties.

Our respondents suggested many ways to alleviate work pressure. Some of these ideas were quite concrete (e.g., secretarial support), while in other cases they were formulated in rather general terms. Solutions pertaining to their private lives, such as getting more rest and creating more scope for relaxation, can be regarded as measures aimed at improving the pastor's personal life. Many of the suggestions concerned measures that would relieve the pastor of his organizational and managerial tasks, such as delegating tasks and having the help of volunteers. Training of improving one's own competencies were also suggested as ways of coping with the various tasks and activities.

Recognizing the burnout phenomenon among a category of professional workers is a prerequisite to tackling the problem (Evers, Gerrichhauzen, & Tomic, 2000). By drawing attention to the fact that pastors suffer from burnout, we may have contributed to finding a solution for this socially relevant problem. The results of this study may offer a new perspective for preventing burnout among pastors. For instance, more attention should be paid to increasing the pastors' competencies during their schooling and training. Young pastors could be mentored, and consultations with colleagues could be promoted in order to ensure that they receive the necessary peer support and advice.

Table 1
Survey of Mean Scores, Standard Deviations, Internal Consistency,
and Intercorrelation Coefficients on Burnout Dimensions and Five
Work Variables (N = 726)

                                                 Cron-bach's
                                M        SD         Alpha

1. Age                        46.31     8.52         --
2. Emotional Exhaustion       14.42     7.37         .87
3. Depersonalization           4.76     3.11         .65
4. Personal Accomplishment    26.62     4.97         .76
5. Pressure of work           15.87     3.96         .76
6. Social support Home        10.52     3.73         .85
7. Social Support Peers        6.92     1.89         .67
8. Role Ambiguity 1            3.43     1.22         --
9. Role Ambiguity 2            3.22     1.24         --

                                1         2           3           4

1. Age                         --
2. Emotional Exhaustion      -.13 **     --
3. Depersonalization         -.04       .46 **       --
4. Personal Accomplishment    .02      -.25 **     -.30 **       --
5. Pressure of work          -.08 *     .52 **      .30 **     -.18 **
6. Social support Home        .07      -.16 **     -.08 *       .09 *
7. Social Support Peers      -.02      -.18 **     -.14 **      .13 **
8. Role Ambiguity 1          -.09 *     .30 **      .24 **     -.01
9. Role Ambiguity 2          -.03       .36 **      .27 **     -.20 **

                                5         6           7           8

1. Age
2. Emotional Exhaustion
3. Depersonalization
4. Personal Accomplishment
5. Pressure of work            --
6. Social support Home       -.01        --
7. Social Support Peers      -.04       .13 **       --
8. Role Ambiguity 1           .26 **   -.03          .02         --
9. Role Ambiguity 2           .46 **    .03         -.01        .34 **

Table 2
Mean Scores on Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and
Personal Accomplishment Among Pastors and a Reference Group (1)

                                          Reference
                            Pastors         Group

                            N = 726        N = 1811

                            M      SD      M      SD      t

Emotional Exhaustion      14.42   7.37   12.57   7.62   5.64 *
Depersonalization          4.76   3.11    5.95   3.72   8.21 *
Personal Accomplishment   26.62   4.97   28.52   5.85   8.36 *

* p < .001

(1) Reference group is composed of police officers (Kop, Euwema &
Schaufeli, 1999), elderly caretakers (Evers, Tomic & Brouwers, 2001),
teachers (Brouwers & Tomic, 2000), and social workers (Sietsma, 2000).

Table 3
A Survey of the Tasks that are Considered to be Difficult by
Pastors in Percentages of the Total Number of Respondents

Task Categories                            Percentage

Pastoral Care                                  32
Administration, Management, Organization       28
Religious Services and Sermons                 24
Catechism                                      16

Table 4
Suggested Methods of Alleviating the Pastors's Work
in the Percentages of the Total Number of Respondents

Suggestions                                          Percentage

Decrease Work Pressure                                   27
Improve the Approach Taken to Tasks                      17
Improve Planning and Organization                        16
Have More Time for Study, Spirituality, and Prayer       15
Get More Support                                         11
Improve Correspondence Between Mutual Expectations        8

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WILL EVERS

WELKO TOMIC

The Open University

The Netherlands

Welko Tomic is a member of the Department of Psychology at The Open University, Heerlen, the Netherlands. Will Evers is a research associate.

Correspoondence concerning this article should be addressed to Welko Tomic, Faculty of Social Sciences, P.O. Box 2960, 6401 DL Heerlen, the Netherlands. Email [e-mail]