Emotional Exhaustion Among Men and Women: Job, Social or Private Related? Floor (F.J.M.) Kuppens ANR:

Transcription

1 RUNNING HEAD: Emotional Among Men and Women Emotional Among Men and Women:, or Related? Floor (F.J.M.) Kuppens ANR: Master Work and Organizational Psychology Tilburg University June 16 th, 2014 Master Thesis Supervisor: Dr. Yvette van Osch Second Reader: Dr. Marieke van den Tooren

2 Emotional Among Men and Women 2 Abstract The present study expands the well-known - (JD-R) model by including the social and private domain. With the private domain this research refers to the demands and resources employees experience when they are at home; the social domain refers to all the demands and resources employees experience when they have activities outside their home with family, friends or acquaintances. A study among 426 office workers in the Netherlands not only found the importance of including these two domains, it also indicated the differences among men and women in experiencing emotional exhaustion. The results suggest that when trying to predict exhaustion, causes from the private and social domain need to be taken just as serious as causes from the job domain. Additionally, it seems that the central domain for men is the job domain, and the most important domains for women are the non-job domains. These findings indicate that when employees suffer from exhaustion complaints, or even burnout complaints, sending them home is not necessarily the solution, especially not for women. Keywords: gender differences, emotional exhaustion, job domain, social domain, private domain.

3 Emotional Among Men and Women 3 Introduction The term burnout is a frequently used word nowadays. However, what is it exactly and does the term indeed cover the problems employees experience? The phrase burnout was used for the first time in the 1970s by Freudenberger to describe the gradual emotional depletion and loss of motivation he observed among people. Freudenberger (1974) defined it as a state of mental and physical exhaustion caused by one s professional life. He also referred to it as the extinction of motivation or incentive especially where one s devotion to a cause or relationship fails to produce the desired results. Consequently, individuals who burn out from their work deplete their energetic resources and lose their dedication to work (Bakker et al., 2014). Noteworthy is the fact that burnout is only related to a person s job. Is it not the case that other domains of life can have an influence on experiencing emotional exhaustion too? Therefore this study is investigating, next to the job domain, two other life domains. When looking at these different domains, it is interesting to investigate how men and women differ in experiencing emotional exhaustion. Recent research has been focusing on gender differences in the job domain, for example Vermeulen and Mustard (2000) looked at gender differences in the qualities of the work environment that contributed to health. In that study, and in many others, there are no or very small gender differences found in the job domain related to exhaustion. However, it seems that women experience more job exhaustion symptoms than men (Dyrbye et al., 2011; Blom, 2012, Lundberg & Cooper, 2011). As a result of these studies it seems that causes for gender differences in burnout need to be sought outside of the work environment. Therefore it is interesting to investigate how other life domains could contribute to emotional exhaustion among men and women. So the research question is, how do men and women differ in the causes of emotional exhaustion in several domains of life? Before focusing on the research question, this thesis will explain the most well-known

4 Emotional Among Men and Women 4 model when examining the relationships between work characteristics and work outcomes. This model will be used as the basis, which will be extended with other domains in this study. - Model During the past decades, many studies have shown that job characteristics can have a big impact on an employees health. The most well-known model that gives an overview of the causes of job exhaustion is the - (JD-R) model of Bakker and Demerouti (2007). In this model they incorporated many possible working conditions with both negative and positive indicators of the well-being of workers. The JD-R model stands for the assumption that every occupation may have its own specific risk factors associated with job stress. These factors can be classified into two general categories: job demands and job resources. demands refer to the physical, cognitive and emotional effort or skills and are therefore associated with certain physical and or psychological costs. resources refer to the physical, cognitive, emotional, social or organizational aspects of the job that are either functional in achieving work goals, reduce job demands and stimulate personal growth, learning and development (Bakker and Demerouti, 2007). These job demands and resources are the triggers of two independent processes: a health impairment process and a motivational process (Bakker et al., 2014). Thus, whereas job demands are the most important predictors of such outcomes as exhaustion, job resources are the most important predictors of motivation. The reason for this is that job demands cost effort and consume resources, whereas job resources fulfill basic, psychological needs, such as autonomy, competence and relatedness (Bakker et al, 2014). Besides these two independent processes, there is also an interaction effect in which job resources buffer the impact of job demands on exhaustion. So, for example job resources such as social support, feedback or opportunities for development can mitigate the impact of job demands, such as work pressure, on exhaustion (Bakker et al., 2014). The other way around also makes sense, thus when employees

5 Emotional Among Men and Women 5 have high demands but low resources, they can experience exhaustion because their low resources cannot buffer the high demands they experience. Other domains: private domain and social domain Most burnout studies, including the just mentioned - model, is mainly exploring the work domain and does not look at other aspects of an employee s life. It could be argued that there are more than job related circumstances that can lead to emotional exhaustion and the recovery of it. A recent report from research agency SKB (2013) argues that the causes of a burnout need to be sought mainly outside the job. Next to having a job, employees can have a high ambition level in their private life too, with regard to relations, social life, appearance, travelling, work-home interference, home-work interference, flexible working hours etc. These factors can easily lead to additional strain (SKB, 2013). Nowadays people constantly check their , phone and whatever people do gets enlarged by for example Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Therefore, social media can even enhance this strain these days. In line with this SKB report the current study expands the JD-R model. There are indications that other domains of life should be taken into account too, but how do these domains relate to the causes of exhaustion? First, this study adds the private domain to the JD-R model. With the private domain this study refers to the demands and resources employees experience when they are at home. The importance of the private domain will be explained with some examples. Peeters et al. (2004) and Montgomery et al. (2003) mention the importance of work-home interference (WHI) and homework interference (HWI). People experience WHI and HWI when pressures for the work and family roles are mutually incompatible, so that participation in one role makes it difficult to participate in the other (Montgomery et al., 2003). WHI means that the work domain has a negative impact on the home domain, and HWI means that the home domain has a negative

6 Emotional Among Men and Women 6 impact on the work domain (Peeters et al., 2004). Peeters et al. (2004) revealed WHI mediates the effect of job stressors on exhaustion. Montgomery et al. (2003) suggests that demands experienced at home are significant related to HWI and therefore the private situation of employees can lead to stress at work. Another example that indicates that the private situation of employees plays an important role in experiencing exhaustion is the recovery at home after a day at work. Rook and Zijlstra (2006) found that spending time in physical activities at home increases the recovery levels of employees. Additionally, a high quality of sleep decreases the feelings of exhaustion at work (Rook and Zijlstra, 2006). The examples mentioned in this paragraph show the value of the private domain; however in order to keep the model as simple as possible these specific factors (such as WHI) are not included in the theoretical model of this study. Secondly, this study includes the social domain. With the social domain this study refers to all the demands and resources employees experience when they have activities outside their home with family, friends or acquaintances. Looking at the article of Walters et al. (1996) and Grice et al. (2010) it seems there is a positive effect of social support from family and friends on health scores, especially for women. When having a friend or someone in whom to confide, it decreases the likelihood of experiencing health problems (Walters et al., 1996). On the other side, the social domain can also lead to more stress, for example because the explosive growth of social media use. In order for individuals to become influential they must not only obtain attention on social media and thus be popular, but also avoid user passivity (Romero et al., 2011). These examples show the importance of including the social domain in the model of this study. Again, to keep it simplistic these specific factors (such as social support) are not included in the model. Figure 1 shows the model with all domains included. In line with the original JD-R model, I expect that the private and social demands enhance

7 Emotional Among Men and Women 7 exhaustion and that the private and social resources can buffer this relationship in both domains too. This leads to the first six hypotheses: H1: demands are positively related to job exhaustion. H2: resources buffer the effect of job demands on job exhaustion. H3: demands are positively related to social exhaustion. H4: resources buffer the effect of social demands on social exhaustion. H5: demands are positively related to private exhaustion. H6: resources buffer the effect of private demands on private exhaustion. There are indications that job exhaustion, social exhaustion and private exhaustion are related to each other. Plomp (2012) suggests that it matters how the home situation is characterized in experiencing exhaustion at work. For instance, how is the distribution of the household care arranged? What is the marital status? Or are there children living at home? As home-work interference shows, employees can take their home concerns to the workplace. (Montgomery et al., 2003) So when people feel exhausted at home, they might come late at work, get their labor not done properly, which as a result can lead to experiencing job exhaustion. The other way around also counts: exhaustion experienced from the workplace can interfere with the home situation. Therefore it could be argued that private exhaustion and job exhaustion are positively related to each other. (H7). These relations also apply for social exhaustion. Employees who get social support from friends, family or acquaintances could experience less social exhaustion. These employees also reveal less exhaustion complaints at their work (Plomp, 2012 ).

8 Emotional Among Men and Women 8 This indicates that social exhaustion and job exhaustion are positively related. The other way around also makes sense: working too much hours can make appointments with friends, family or acquaintances more fatiguing, so job exhaustion can lead to experiencing social exhaustion (H8). Furthermore, it could be argued that social exhaustion and private exhaustion are positively related. Taking care of an ill child can cause private exhaustion, which automatically hinders that person to put full energy in doing activities with their friends, thus leads to social exhaustion (H9). In line with this, also hypothesis 10 is formulated: job exhaustion, social exhaustion and private exhaustion can lead to experiencing exhaustion in general. H7: exhaustion and job exhaustion are positively related. H8: exhaustion and job exhaustion are positively related. H9: exhaustion and private exhaustion are positively related. H10: exhaustion, social exhaustion and private exhaustion are positively related to general exhaustion. Gender differences This thesis focuses on the newly proposed JD-R model in the light of gender differences. Like mentioned before, recent research has been focusing on gender differences in the job domain, but in that research small or no differences were found. Though, women experience more exhaustion complaints than men (Dyrbye et al., 2011; Blom, 2012). What is the source of this inconsistency? This study examines how other life domains contribute to emotional exhaustion among men and women, and therefore investigates where the differences can be found. Grice et al. (2011) states that women generally shoulder the majority of family

9 Emotional Among Men and Women 9 responsibilities, particularly after the birth of a child. Although employed fathers contribute to home chores and child care too, employed mothers commit relatively more time to family care and household work. Thereby, Walters et al. (1996) found that the only significant home demand men experience is the dislike of housework and not the feelings of time pressure, caring for dependent adults, or even taking care of children. Home demands have a negative impact on health problems and this appears to be especially applicable for women (Walters et al., 1996). Additionally, based on gender roles (Gutek et al., 1981) and norms on what men should be like (Eagly & Karau, 2002), men are expected to give priority to the work role over the family role and therefore spend more energy and other resources on work than on the family (Van Veldhoven et al., 2012). While women s workforce participation increase (Grice et al., 2010), they still need to fulfill the private demands in less time. Therefore women will experience more private demands and private exhaustion than men. This leads to the following three hypotheses: H11a: Women experience higher private demands than men. H11b: Women experience higher private exhaustion than men. H11c: The relationship of private demands on private exhaustion is applicable for women and not for men Walters et al. (1996) expected that women would benefit more from social relationships with friends and relatives than men. However, they did not find any significant evidence for this idea. Though, more than a decade later, Grice et al. (2011) found that women with support from friends and family, outside of the workplace, experienced better mental health. Getting social support from friends and extended family is operationalized in this study as social resources and

10 Emotional Among Men and Women 10 therefore the twelfth hypothesis is formulated: H12: resources are more important as buffer against social exhaustion for women than for men. Walters et al. (1996) also expected that men benefit more from marriage than women. Again, there was no significant evidence for this suggestion. However, it is imaginable that, in line with the eleventh hypothesis, men profit from women who shoulder the family responsibilities at home. Gove (1972; 1973) and Helsing & Szklo (1981) found that being married is beneficial for the health experience and that becoming widowed is more harmful. This applies more for men than for women (House et al., 1988). It could therefore be argued that for men the marriage is a private resource which alleviates their emotional exhaustion. This expectation is translated into the last hypothesis: H13: resources are more important as buffer against private exhaustion for men than for women. Participants Method In this study participants were collected by snowball sampling and by approaching different organizations in the Netherlands, in which 11 organizations took part. This were 7 governmental organizations (i.e. schools, municipalities and tax authorities) and 5 manufacturing companies (i.e. healthcare industry, food industry). In total 426 office workers participated. This study only asked office workers, to keep the data collection as homogeneous as possible. In Table 1 the descriptives of the participants are displayed.

11 Emotional Among Men and Women 11 Figure 1: Expected model of this study, including the hypotheses sssss Gender differences General Gender differences Gender differences Table 1: Descriptives of the participants Age Working hours contract* Actual working hours* Women (N=250) Men (N=176) Total (N=426) M SD M SD M SD Number of children living at home** * six participants did not give a definitive answer, they were excluded in calculating the means. ** two participants did not give a definitive answer, they were excluded in calculating the means

12 Emotional Among Men and Women 12 Design and procedure From January till May 2014 a questionnaire was distributed to the different organizations in the Netherlands. The survey was formed in Qualtrics, an online survey software program, and consisted in total 109 questions. Employees were insured of their anonymity and were kindly requested to fill in the questionnaire which took approximately 15 minutes of their time. At the end of the study participants were thanked and had the chance to win a voucher worth 25 Euros by ing the researchers. Sign up for the voucher is done by to guarantee the anonymity of the participants in the dataset. Measures Table 2 shows an overview of the variables in this study. The questionnaire as a whole can be found in the appendix. Bakker and Demerouti (2007) used the physical, emotional and cognitive area to describe job demands. This study focused only on the emotional and cognitive area, because solely office workers participated. In general, these employees do not perform physically heavy work. Keeping the physical area out of research also made sure the questionnaire did not become too long. Additionally, Montgomery et al. (2003) neglected the physical area too in their study and Le Blanc et al. (2001) even ignored the physical area and cognitive area in their research. So, focusing on specific areas is common practice in this research field. The job demands questions were retrieved from the VBBA (Vragenlijst Beleving en Beoordeling van de Arbeid; translated: Questionnaire Experience and Evaluation of the Work ) of Veldhoven et al. (1994). We used 5 out of 10 questions for each area (emotional and cognitive) to keep the questionnaire as short but as valid as possible. The job demands questions were translated into social demands questions and private demands questions (see Table 2). The job resources were assessed by questions from the DISQ 2.1 from De Jonge et al.

13 Emotional Among Men and Women 13 (2009). Also the questions of the job resources were based on the cognitive and emotional area. Again, for each area 5 out of 10 questions were used in the current questionnaire. Also the job resources questions were translated into social resources questions and private resources questions (see Table 2). The emotional exhaustion scale was retrieved from the Utrecht Burnout Scale of Schaufeli et al. (2000). Burnout is characterized by exhaustion (draining mental energy), cynicism (a negative attitude towards work) and reduced professional efficacy (the belief that one is no longer effective in fulfilling one s job responsibilities) (Langelaan et al., 2006). Since emotional exhaustion is the central element of burnout and the most obvious manifestation of this complex syndrome (Maslach et al., 2001), this study used emotional exhaustion solely as outcome measurement. Because the emotional exhaustion scale is based on the work environment, these job questions were again translated into the social and private domain. Additionally for these questions a general domain was included too. This domain measured the experienced emotional exhaustion of life in general. (see Table 2). The three work-home interference and three home-work interference questions were from De Jonge et al. (2003). These questions were not a part of the theoretical model in this study, to keep the model clear and concise. Though, like mentioned in the introduction, WHI and HWI are important factors in the private domain and in the gender differences. Therefore WHI and HWI will be used in the ANOVA analyses of this research to indicate more accurately the possible variation among men and women in experiencing exhaustion (see Table 2). Finally, the survey asked the participants to fill in some questions on recovery, in terms of sleep quality, and some demographic questions, like gender, age, type of function, years of experience, number of working- and contract hours, marital status and the amount of children currently living at home.

14 14 Table 2: Summary of the variables used in this study, including scale ranging, cronbach s alpha and the gender differences. Men Women # Cronbach's Variable items Sample question Scale ranging alpha M (SD) M (SD) F (1,424) ² demands (0.39) 2.69 (0.37) Cognitive 5 When I am at work I constantly need to keep my focus 1= never, 4= always.79 Emotional 5 When I am at work I experience moving situations 1= never,4= always.71 demands (0.38) 1.99 (0.33) Cognitive 5 When I am with friends/family/acquaintances I constantly need to keep my focus 1= never, 4= always.83 Emotional 5 When I am with friends/family/acquaintances I experience moving situations 1= never, 4= always.72 demands (0.44) 2.36 (0.53) 11.98***.03 Cognitive 5 When I am at home I constantly need to stay focused 1= never, 4= always.90 Emotional 5 When I am at home I experience moving situations 1= never, 4= always.82 resources (0.48) 3.46 (0.49) Cognitive 5 When I am at work I receive information from others to solve complex tasks 1= (almost) never, 5= (almost) always.64 Emotional 5 When I am at work I can express my emotions 1= (almost) never, 5= (almost) always.77 resources (0.53) 3.82 (0.54) 4.33*.01 Cognitive 5 When I am with family/friends/acquaintances I receive information from others to solve complex tasks 1= (almost) never, 5= (almost) always.72 Emotional 5 When I am with family/friends/acquaintances I can express my emotions 1= (almost) never, 5= (almost) always.86 resources (0.57) 3.90 (0.61) Cognitive 5 When I am at home I receive information from others to solve complex tasks 1= (almost) never, 5= (almost) always.70 Emotional 5 When I am at home I can express my emotions 1= (almost) never, 5= (almost) always.86 exhaustion 5 I feel burned out due to my work 1= never, 7= daily (1.44) 2.86 (1.38) exhaustion 5 I feel burned out due to contact with my family/friends/acquaintances 1= never, 7= daily (0.95) 1.61 (0.74) exhaustion 5 I feel burned out due to my activities at home 1= never, 7= daily (1.03) 1.87 (1.07) 4.18*.01 General exhaustion 5 In general I feel burned out 1= never, 7= daily (1.15) 2.12 (1.09) Work home interference 3 I have so much work to do, that I cannot practice my hobbies 1= (almost) never, 5= (almost) always (0.86) 2.54 (0.89) Home work interference 3 I have to refuse tasks at work because of obligations at home 1= (almost) never, 5= (almost) always (0.62) 1.59 (0.63) Note: The total questionnaire also contained four questions about sleep quality, four time shortage questions, three questions about the perceived importance of work and three social media questions. *p=<.05 **p=<.01 ***p=<.001

15 Emotional Among Men and Women 15 Results This cross-sectional study applied structural equation modeling (SEM) by using AMOS to test the first ten hypotheses. In addition, because we are interested in the differences between men and women (hypotheses 11 to 13), multiple group analyses were used. General model To invest hypotheses 1 to 10 the general model was tested in AMOS. The significant relationships AMOS gave are displayed in Figure 2 1. The model fit for this general model is satisfactory: χ2(24)=42.68, p=.011, RMSEA=.043 TLI=.991 CFI=.997, GFI=.985. Only the chi square (χ2) is unsatisfactory, because of its significant p-value. However, when samples in a complex model are relatively small, the chi square will reject this hypothesized model too often (Bearden et al., 1982). This is applicable in this study, and that is why we give priority to the other fit indices, which show a good fit. The modification indices that AMOS gave were all lower than 7 and do not show enough notable differences in the chi square change to report them. Based on Figure 2, this model tests the first hypotheses. H1 is confirmed: job demands show a significant increase in job exhaustion. H2 is confirmed: job resources are a significant buffer for the effect of job demands on job exhaustion. H3 is confirmed: social demands show a significant increase in social exhaustion. H4 is confirmed: social resources are a significant buffer for the effect of social demands on social exhaustion. H5 is confirmed: private demands show a significant increase in private exhaustion. H6 is confirmed: private resources are a significant buffer for the effect of private demands on private exhaustion. H7 is not confirmed: private exhaustion and job exhaustion are not significant related (job exhaustion to private exhaustion: p=.193, private exhaustion to job exhaustion: p=.306). H8 is not confirmed: social exhaustion and 1 The general model with all its relationships can be found in the appendix.

16 Figure 2: General model with significant standardized regression weights in AMOS. Emotional Among Men and Women ** -1.30** *** 0.54*** x 0.96 *** 0.18 *** General -0.77** x 0.28*** 0.21** 0.32*** x 0.85 *** -0.58** Note: * p=<.05 **p=<.01 ***p=<.001 job exhaustion are not significant related (job exhaustion to social exhaustion: p=.543, social exhaustion to job exhaustion: p=.082). H9 is confirmed: social exhaustion and private exhaustion are significant positively related. H10 is confirmed: job exhaustion, social exhaustion and private exhaustion all lead significant to experiencing general exhaustion. Gender differences Testing hypotheses 11, 12 and 13, results of the multiple group analysis showed that for men and women the structure of the model differs. Specifically, after equating all the terms for

17 Emotional Among Men and Women 17 men and women the p-value was significant, which indicates that changes in the model results in a significant worse fit: χ2(18)=33.91, p=.013. This suggests that there are differences between the models for men and women. Even though there is a significant worse fit after the multiple group analysis, the model fit is still satisfactory: χ2(48)=80.266, p=.002, RMSEA=.040 TLI=.984 CFI=.995, GFI=.972. Similar to the general model, the chi square (χ2) is unsatisfactory, because the p-value is significant. As mentioned before, when samples in a complex model are relatively small, the chi square will reject this hypothesized model too often (Bearden et al., 1982). Figure 3 and Figure 4 show the significant relationships for men and women and therefore reveal the differences in gender 2. The modification indices that AMOS gave for both men and women do not show notable differences in the chi square to report them all. For men all modification indices were lower than 7 and for women all modification indices were lower than 5. However, for men it is interesting to look at the following modification indices (modification index (M.I.) of 4.94) which indicates a buffer effect of private resources on job exhaustion. When adding this arrow in the model, for men there arises a significant buffer effect (B=-0.15, p=.020) (dotted line). For women this relationship does not exist (B=0.11, p=.066). Based on Figure 3, Figure 4 and Table 2 this study tests for the last three hypotheses. H11a is supported: A one-way ANOVA revealed the gender differences of the variables in this study. Table 2 shows that women (M=2.36, SD=0.53) experience significantly F(1,424)=11.98, p=.001, ²=.03 higher private demands than men (M=2.19, SD=0.44). H11b is supported too: women (M=1.87, SD=1.07) indeed experience significantly F(1,424)= 4.18, p=.042, ²=.01 higher private exhaustion than men (M=1.66, SD=1.03). When looking at Figure 3 and 4, it seems that for women private demands significantly lead to private exhaustion with a regression weight 2 The model for men and the model for women with all its relationships can be found in the appendix

18 Emotional Among Men and Women 18 of B=1.12. For men this relation of private demands on private exhaustion is not significant (B=0.49, p=.058). This indicates that H11c is supported too. Altogether, women experience higher private demands than men which lead to higher private exhaustion than men. H12 is supported: Figure 4 shows a significant buffer effect for women (B=-1.53) from social resources on the relation of social demands on social exhaustion. Figure 3 shows that for men this effect does not exist (B=-0.23, p=.551). H13 is not supported. resources are not a significant buffer against private exhaustion for men (B=-0.30, p=.279). Like Figure 4 shows, for women this buffer effect does exist (B=-0.82). However following the modification indices and like mentioned before, for men there seems to be a significant buffer effect of private resources on their job exhaustion (see Figure 3). Mean differences As mentioned in the method, it is interesting to look at the gender differences in WHI and HWI. With these variables this study can investigate more accurately the private and job domain. However, like Table 2 shows, this study did not find any significant differences between men and women in WHI and HWI. As the results of the ANOVA revealed (Table 2), there are significant gender differences in experiencing private demands and private exhaustion in which women experience more demands and higher exhaustion than men. Table 2 also uncovers that women experience significant higher social resources than men, F(1,424)=4.33, p=.038, ²=.01. Additionally, in the method section, Table 1 shows the gender differences in the descriptive questions, including contract hours and actual working hours. It seems women have significantly less contract hours (F(1,418)=72.97, p=.000, ²=.15) and less actual working hours (F(1,418)=117.96, p=.000, ²=.22).

19 Emotional Among Men and Women 19 Figure 3: Model for men with significant standardized regression weights in AMOS Figure 4: Model for women with significant standardized regression weights in AMOS 1.30** *** x -1.62* 0.56*** x 0.31* 0.53*** -0.15* 0.24 *** General 1.57 *** 0.17 *** General x 0.51*** 0.21 *** x 0.77** -1.53*** 0.21* 0.17* 0.36*** 1.12*** -0.82** x x Note: * p=<.05 **p=<.01 ***p=<.001

20 Emotional Among Men and Women 20 Discussion The current study aimed to expand earlier research on emotional exhaustion by examining whether including a social and private domain into the JD-R model will lead to a better understanding of burnout complaints. In addition, this research examined how the differences in emotional exhaustion among men and women could be explained. General model The classical hypotheses that job demands predict job exhaustion and that job resources buffer the effect for this exhaustion are again confirmed. The idea of this study to include the social and private domain also turned out to be successful. The structure according to the JD-R model is also applicable to other life domains, in terms of social and private demands which significantly enhance social and private exhaustion and the both resources which buffer the effect for its related exhaustion. With regards to the relationships between the four exhaustion types, two hypotheses were supported and two were not. and private exhaustion were significantly related to each other but not with job exhaustion. This could suggest that the social and private domain are more overlapping. It is possible that for instance your family is at your home for a visit or that when picking up your child at school you meet other parents. In these examples both domains converge and therefore it could be argued that the social and private domain are probably more experienced as the same. Therefore it is logical the model showed that private exhaustion leads to social exhaustion and vice versa. Both domains have less overlap with the job domain and this also explains why both social exhaustion and private exhaustion were not significant related with job exhaustion. This could be indicating that there is a split in experiencing job related exhaustion and non-job related exhaustion, which is with friends, family, or at home. Like the model revealed, all three types of exhaustion contribute to experiencing exhaustion in life in general. Thereby, the social and private domain together have

21 Emotional Among Men and Women 21 an equal regression weight as the job domain. This could suggest that when trying to predict exhaustion, causes from the non-job domain are as essential as causes from the job domain. Gender differences As expected, women indeed experience significantly more private demands and private exhaustion than men. Taking care of the household activities, like cleaning, doing groceries, cooking or taking care of the children are demands in the private domain which lead to the experience of private exhaustion. Like Figure 3 and 4 illustrate, this research found that private demands are only a significant predictor for private exhaustion for women. For men this relationship was absent. However, as mentioned in the results, women have significantly less contract hours and actual working hours than men. Therefore it could be logical women execute more home tasks than men. These findings indicate that the old-fashioned idea of women taking care of the household is probably still be true. The idea that social resources are more important as buffer against social exhaustion for women than for men seems to be correct. resources like getting support from friends and family or feel appreciated by them are for women significantly more important than for men. This supports scientific research so far (Cohen & Wills, 1985; Antonucci & Akiyama, 1987; Walters et al., 1996; Grice et al., 2011; Smith et al., 2013). The buffer effect of private resources on private exhaustion is only significant for women. The tiredness experienced due to the activities at home get significantly buffered by for instance the support women get at home from their partner, children or other persons living at their home. Since women experience more private exhaustion due to the demands they experience at home, this study assumed that men would experience this as a private resource. Thus, for them the private situation is a place to recover, since women fulfill the home demands. Because of this assumption the study expected that the buffer effect of private resources on private exhaustion would exist for men, but the results in Figure 3 show this is not

22 Emotional Among Men and Women 22 true. However, the modification indices revealed that there is a buffer effect of private resources for men on job exhaustion. It seems that the support at home and the household tasks which get done by their partner indeed have a significant buffer effect, but for their fatigue experienced at work. Since men experience significant less private exhaustion, it is also logical the buffer of private resources does not exist on private exhaustion, but on job exhaustion, the domain that also seems to be more important for men than for women when looking at the results. The models for both men and women show an obvious contrast. Whereas the job domain is an important predictor for men and not for women, the social and private domain are important predictors for women and not for men. It turns out that when including the social and private domain, the original JD-R model only applies to men. This is an interesting finding, since a lot of research only focused on the job domain when looking at emotional exhaustion, which again is an important element of burnout. Although the experience in job demands for men and women do not differ, for women the private domain and social domain seems more important to explain their burnout complaints than past studies suggested. Study limitations and implications A key limitation of the current study is that it included a homogenous group of office workers, which might not be representative for the working population in the Netherlands. The current study decided to focus on this population, since office workers do not execute physically heavy work, the area which is left out of research. However, like this study, future research could still focus on the emotional and cognitive area, but with a more heterogeneous group of participants including for example teachers, construction workers, bus drivers or factory workers. Thereby, most organizations that participated in this study were located in the south of the Netherlands (Noord-Brabant or Zeeland). It is imaginable that the norms and values about working are diverse in different parts of the Netherlands and therefore future

23 Emotional Among Men and Women 23 research also needs to focus on a broader region to better understand the exhaustion of Dutch employees. This brings us to the second limitation; the results of this study are not applicable to other countries. For future research it would be interesting to compare results with different countries with contradictory traditional work roles among men and women. Higher strain in domestic work was found to be associated with lower mental health scores in working women (Staland-Nyman et al., 2008), but when women do not have a job or live in countries where traditional work roles are dominated, are then the same results applicable? Do this non-working women also experience burnout complaints? And when there are no differences in contract hours and actual working hours among men and women, are then the predictors for women also from the non-job domains? If so, this would support current research in the importance of the social and private domain. Additionally it is interesting to investigate families in which the woman has a job and the man takes care for the household tasks. Are the predictors for men and women then the same as in this study? Furthermore, this research has a lack of causality. The current research was a crosssectional study, in other words a descriptive study in which we measured our variables at one specific point in time. Therefore we can only describe causes and effects, but cannot make causal inference. Future research needs to execute a longitudinal study to see whether there are any causal relationships. Another limitation in this research is that questions about the social and private domain were literally translated from the questions to measure job demands and job resources. For this reason the social and private domain questions were not always clear. It is imaginable that for participants some items were difficult to interpret. Consequently it is possible that participants did not give proper answers to the questions. However, when looking at the Cronbach s alpha s of the items, they are all satisfactory. When looking at Figure 4 there appears to be a surprising finding. There is a positive

24 Emotional Among Men and Women 24 arrow from social resources to social exhaustion. This arrow suggests that the support and feedback women receive from friends, family and acquaintances nevertheless leads to social exhaustion. However, there are some explanations imaginable for this finding. For instance when a woman gets help from a friend in a difficult situation, it is possible this woman feels obliged to do something in return for that friend, which possibly contributes to feelings of exhaustion. Additionally, it is imaginable to get support you actually do not want in a certain situation, for example a mother who insists to help in a situation where you actually prefer no interference or involvement. In the first place, this could contribute to stress, because you receive something you do not want. Secondly, in such a situation you often need to adjust your original plan. The more of this stress a person experiences, the more these social resources can lead to social exhaustion. Nevertheless, the relationship of resources on exhaustion only exists for women and only in the social domain. For upcoming research it is therefore interesting to investigate the three domains separately. Doing this leads to a better understanding of the differences and the importance of the diverse domains for men and women. The findings of this study need to be taken seriously: especially for women there are indications that the causes of their burnout complaints need to be sought outside the work environment. It is possible that stop working would not be a solution in healing from a burnout, given that the demands and resources from the private and social domain stay the same. To recover it could be more effective to reduce their social and private demands instead of reducing their work demands. At least it seems essential to keep the demands and resources in their private and social domain in balance, with the intention that the exhaustion complaints are at a minimum. For men it is important to keep in mind that their most essential buffer against emotional exhaustion comes from the job domain. When removing these resources by sending them home, their exhaustion complaints could still increase. For men current study suggests it is effective to reduce the job demands to recover from a burnout, and keep the job resources at

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