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. 2018 Aug 25;18(1):266.
doi: 10.1186/s12888-018-1841-5.

Psychometric properties of the Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure (SMBM) among adolescents: results from three cross-sectional studies

Markus Gerber  1 , Flora Colledge  2 , Manuel Mücke  2 , René Schilling  2 , Serge Brand  2 , Sebastian Ludyga  2
Affiliations

Psychometric properties of the Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure (SMBM) among adolescents: results from three cross-sectional studies

Markus Gerber et al. BMC Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Background: Burnout has long been understood as work-related physical, emotional, and cognitive exhaustion. However, burnout symptoms can also be found among younger people, including school-aged adolescents. While the Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure (SMBM) is a widely applied instrument, its psychometric properties have not yet been investigated in adolescent populations. We therefore examined the psychometric properties of the SMBM in three independent samples of adolescents.

Methods: In total, 249 high school students, 144 vocational students, and 257 adolescent elite athletes completed the SMBM, along with questionnaires related to perceived stress, depressive symptoms, and life satisfaction. Descriptive statistics, gender differences, and internal consistency, convergent/discriminant validity, and factorial validity (including measurement invariance across genders) were examined in each sample.

Results: The SMBM had adequate internal consistency. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that both a first- and second-order model achieve good model fit. Moreover, evidence for sufficient convergent and discriminant validity was found. Finally, in two of the three samples, female adolescents reported higher SMBM scores.

Conclusions: The SMBM has been widely used in international burnout research. However, this is the first study providing empirical evidence that the SMBM has acceptable psychometric properties and satisfactory convergent/discriminant and factorial validity among young people. The SMBM is a concise and economic tool to assess self-rated symptoms of burnout, and presents a valuable alternative to existing school burnout inventories. In particular, the SMBM can facilitate the investigation of the transition of young people from school to working life.

Keywords: Burnout; Measurement invariance; Mental wellbeing; Stress; Validity.

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Conflict of interest statement

Authors’ information

Markus Gerber is assistant professor of sport science at the Department of Sport, Exercise and Health at the University of Basel, Switzerland. Manuel Mücke and René Schilling are PhD students in the Division of Sport and Psychosocial Health at the at the Department of Sport, Exercise and Health at the University of Basel, Switzerland. Flora Colledge is a post-doctoral researcher in the Sport Science Section at the at the Department of Sport, Exercise and Health at the University of Basel, Switzerland. Serge Brand is a senior researcher in the Sport Science Section at the Department of Sport, Exercise and Health at the University of Basel, Switzerland. He also works as a senior researcher and clinical psychologist at the Center for Affective, Stress and Sleep Disorders, Psychiatric Clinics of the University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland. Finally, he is a visiting professor at Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences (KUMS), Substance Abuse Research Center and Sleep Disorders Research Center; Kermanshah, Iran. Sebastian Ludyga is a post-doctoral researcher in the Sport Science Section at the at the Department of Sport, Exercise and Health at the University of Basel, Switzerland.

Ethics approval and consent to participants

Ethics approval has been obtained for all three studies before data assessment from the local ethical review board (Ethical Review Board of Northwestern and Central Switzerland, EKNZ). All participants have provided written informed consent.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Factor loadings for confirmatory factor analysis for first- and second-order models, separately for high school students, vocational students and young elite athletes
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Factor loadings for confirmatory factor analysis for first- and second-order models, after having tested for measurement invariance across samples. First coefficient: young elite athletes. Second coefficient: high school students. Third coefficient: vocational students
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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