title: Genetic and environmental influences on the association between performance-based self-esteem and exhaustion: A study of the self-worth notion of burnout.
abstract: In the self-worth model, burnout is considered to be a syndrome of performance-based self-esteem (PBSE) and experiences of exhaustion. Studies have shown that PBSE and burnout indices such as Pines' Burnout Measure (BM) are associated. Whether these variables have overlapping etiologies has however not been studied before. Genetic and environmental components of covariation between PBSE and exhaustion measured with Pines' BM were examined in a bivariate Cholesky model using data from 14,875 monozygotic and dizygotic Swedish twins. Fifty-two per cent of the phenotypic correlation (r = 0.41) between PBSE and Pines' BM was explained by genetics and 48% by environmental factors. The findings of the present study strengthen the assumption that PBSE should be considered in the burnout process as proposed by the self-worth conception of burnout. The present results extend our understanding of the link between this contingent self-esteem construct and exhaustion and provide additional information about the underlying mechanisms in terms of genetics and environment. This finding corroborates the assumed syndrome view on burnout, while it also suggests an altered view of how the syndrome emerges and how it can be alleviated.
authors.affiliation: Division of Insurance Medicine, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Pia
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7952-3418
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Svedberg
authors.affiliation: Division of Insurance Medicine, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Lennart
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hallsten
authors.affiliation: Division of Insurance Medicine, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Jurgita
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Narusyte
authors.affiliation: Division of Intervention and Implementation Research, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Lennart
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bodin
authors.affiliation: Division of Insurance Medicine, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.|The Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Victoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Blom
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002055:Burnout, Professional / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology*; D005221:Fatigue / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D059647:Gene-Environment Interaction; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D012649:Self Concept; D013548:Sweden; D000066477:Work Performance; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Burnout; Sweden; exhaustion; genetics; performance-based self-esteem; twins