From Burnout to Occupational Depression: Recent Developments in Research on Job-Related Distress and Occupational
Irvin Sam Schonfeld1, Renzo Bianchi2
1Department of Psychology, The City College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, New York, NY, United States.
Abstract:
Job-related distress has been a focal concern in occupational health science. Job-related distress has a well-documented health-damaging and life-threatening character, not to mention its economic cost. In this article, we review recent developments in research on job-related distress and examine ongoing changes in how job-related distress is conceptualized and assessed. By adopting an approach that is theoretically, empirically, and clinically informed, we demonstrate how the construct of burnout and its measures, long favored in research on job-related distress, have proved to be problematic. We underline a new recommendation for addressing job-related distress within the long-established framework of depression research. In so doing, we present the Occupational Depression Inventory, a recently developed instrument devised to assess depressive symptoms that individuals specifically attribute to their work. We close our paper by laying out the advantages of a paradigm shift from burnout to occupational depression.
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