[Study on the relationship between occupational stress and social support with job burnout of locomotive drivers]

Objective: To explore the mediating role of anxiety and social support between occupational stress and job burnout among locomotive drivers, and the regulatory role of self-requirement. Methods: A total of 1993 front-line drivers from 5 rail transit enterprises were selected as subjects by cluster random sampling method from March to June 2022. The job burnout, occupational stress, anxiety, social support and self-requirement were investigated by using the Marquis Work Burnout Inventory (General Version), Job Stress Survey, Generalized Anxiety Scale, Self-Reported Health Rating Scale and Self-Examination Questionnaire. Bootstrap method was used to examine the mediating effect of anxiety and social support between occupational stress and job burnout, and the regulatory effect of self-requirement. Results: The comprehensive score of job burnout for locomotive drivers was 2.60 (1.95, 3.24) points. There were statistically significant differences in the job burnout scores among drivers with different total working years, current job years, monthly working hours, and smoking status (H=12.12, 22.76, 41.36, 18.20, P<0.05). The mediating effect analysis showed that the partial mediating effect composed of occupational stress-anxiety-job burnout accounted for 30.8% of the total effect (β=0.008, 95%CI: 0.007-0.009), and the partial mediating effect composed of occupational stress-social support-job burnout accounted for 11.5% of the total effect (β=0.003, 95%CI: 0.003-0.004). The analysis of moderated mediating effect showed that the increase of self-requirement could amplify the proportion of the partial mediating effect of anxiety in the total effect (from 21.4% to 44.0%), and reduce the direct effect of work stress on job burnout and the partial mediating effect of social support. Conclusion: The occupational stress of locomotive drivers can indirectly affect job burnout through anxiety and social support. It is suggested to identify the self-requirement level of locomotive drivers and carry out targeted intervention on anxiety and social support to slow down the formation of job burnout.