Job stress in general practice: practitioner age, sex and attitudes as predictors

South Australian general practitioners (n = 966) provided information in a questionnaire study about four indicators of job stress: the burnout components of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment, and a three-item measure of job dissatisfaction. As job stress can arise from discrepancies between the nature of the work and the expectations of the worker, attitudes to general practice form and content were surveyed, using an existing Australian scale. This study largely replicated the factor structure originally reported for the scale. Up to one third of respondents reported significant levels of job stress, which varied according to age and sex as well as attitudes to general practice.