Psychological Well-Being and Burnout in University Faculty: The Mediating Role of Emotional Exhaustion.

Authors

María J García-Rubio, Laura Viqueira Gutiérrez, Sandra Hoyos, Paloma López-Hernández, Irene Cano-López, Alejandro Cano-Villagrasa

Published in

Actas espanolas de psiquiatria. Volume 54. Issue 4. Pages 1201-1211. Aug 15, 2026. Epub Aug 15, 2026.

Abstract

To examine the relationship between psychological well-being and burnout dimensions among university faculty members, as well as the mediating role of emotional exhaustion in the association between psychological well-being and professional accomplishment.
A cross-sectional study was conducted with 597 university faculty members from several Spanish universities. Participants completed the Spanish adaptation of Ryff's Psychological Well-Being Scales and the emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment subscales of the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Correlation, regression, and mediation analyses were performed.
All dimensions of psychological well-being were negatively associated with emotional exhaustion and positively associated with professional accomplishment. Environmental mastery emerged as the strongest predictor of lower emotional exhaustion (β = -0.405, p < 0.001) and higher professional accomplishment (β = 0.263, p < 0.001). Mediation analyses indicated that emotional exhaustion partially mediated the relationship between psychological well-being and professional accomplishment.
Psychological well-being may function as a protective personal resource associated with lower levels of burnout among university faculty members. In particular, environmental mastery may represent a key psychological resource associated with lower emotional exhaustion and greater professional accomplishment in higher education settings. Interventions aimed at strengthening psychological well-being and reducing emotional exhaustion may contribute to improving occupational mental health in academic professionals.

PMID:
42633497
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 23 Aug 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.