[The relationship between the burnout and self esteem among prison wardens]

Our aim in this research has been to show the link existing between "burn-out" and self-esteem. Several studies have outlined that link without actually bringing is to light. The present study has been carried out among prison officers. The concept had actually never been applied to such a population and has rather been used for social assistance jobs, such as social workers, tutors or teachers. A "burn-out" questionnaire has been made so as to estimate how tired the staff were. Maslach's test (1982) has revealed difficult to use here. Coopersmith's SEI has been used to estimate people's self-image. The results have revealed positive, as the elder staff have shown a higher burn-out rate than the younger ones. The younger staff also have a better self-image than the elder ones. Eventually, the global level of self-esteem and total level of exhaustion are inversely correlated. From these results, it can be said that prison warders tend to endure an occupational exhaustion syndrome and that the lower their self-esteem the higher their "burn-out" rate.