The Reliability and Factorial Validity of Different Versions of the Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure/Questionnaire and Normative Data for a General Swedish Sample

Burnout is a common problem in many countries and is associated with psychological ill health, somatic diseases, mortality and long-term sick leave. Different versions of the Shirom-Melamed Burnout Questionnaire/Measure (SMBQ/SMBM) are widely used to measure burnout. Using confirmatory factor analysis, the main purpose of the present study was to empirically evaluate different Swedish versions of the SMBQ/SMBM. A questionnaire containing 23 SMBQ/SMBM-items was sent to 4,000 randomly selected individuals of which 765 with no missing data were included in the analyses. The well-used 4-factor SMBQ/SMBM-22 including the factors emotional and physiological exhaustion (EPE), cognitive weariness (CWE), listlessness (LIS), and tension (TES) and the 3-factor SMBQ/SMBM-18 (including the EPE, the CWE, and the LIS) reached good model fit after minor modifications. Two 2-factor models (based on 12 and 11 items, respectively), including the EPE and the CWE reached good model fit without any modifications. Even though there were some concerns regarding all models with respect to discriminant validity, the factors in all models showed evidence of good composite reliability (CR) and convergent validity. Lastly, a brief six-item version of the scale based on the 12-item version of the scale indicated an excellent model fit, and the composite score of the six-item scale correlated strongly with the composite scores from the others models, suggesting that the brief version could be used with advantage. In addition, based on the LIS, a new three-item scale that measures vitality is proposed. For all measures, normative data are reported.

Automated summary

Burnout is a common issue worldwide, and the study evaluated different Swedish versions of the SMBQ/SMBM using confirmatory factor analysis. The study found that the 4-factor and 3-factor versions of the scale had good model fit, and a new six-item version showed promise for future use.