The Relationship between Workaholism, Depressive Symptoms and Job Burnout Among Employees in The Central Region of Malaysia

Fazliyana Mohd Nazir, Nurul Ain Hidayah Abas

Abstract


This study investigates the relationship between workaholism and depressive symptoms as well as the relationship between workaholism and job burnout among workers. The study employed a cross-sectional quantitative survey design in which the data collected by using an online survey method. Dutch Work Addiction Scale (DUWAS-10), Major Depression Inventory (MDI), Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI) were used in this study. A data from N=146 workers in Selangor, Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur (n = 93 female, n = 53 male) were gathered and analysed. Pearson’s correlation analysis revealed that there was a positive correlation between workaholism and depressive symptoms (r (146) = 0.194, p = 0.019). It was found that there was significant relationship between workaholism and depressive symptoms among workers, which raises the possibility that the increase level of workaholism also increase and depressive symptoms among workers or vice versa. It was also found out there was no significant relationship between workaholism and job burnout, even though the result shows there was negative correlation between workaholism and job burnout (r (146) = -0.036, p = 0.667). This raises the possibility that increase the workaholism level does not necessarily lowers the job burnout among workers or vice versa.


Full Text:

PDF

References


Albert, P. R. (2015). Why is depression more prevalent in women? Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, 40(4), 219-221. https://doi.org/10.1503/jpn.150205

Andreassen, C. S. (2014). Workaholism: An overview and current status of the research. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 3(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1556/jba.2.2013.017

Andreassen, C. S., Griffiths, M. D., Sinha, R., Hetland, J., & Pallesen, S. (2016). The relationships between workaholism and symptoms of psychiatric disorders: A large-scale cross-sectional study. PLOS ONE, 11(5), e0152978. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0152978

Ariapooran, S. (2019). Sleep problems and depression in Iranian nurses: The predictive role of workaholism. Iranian Journal of Nursing and Midwifery Research, 24(1), 30. https://doi.org/10.4103/ijnmr.ijnmr_188_17

Bartczak, M., & Ogińska-Bulik, N. (2012). Workaholism and mental health among Polish academic workers. International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics, 18(1), 3-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2012.11076910

Bereznowski, P., Atroszko, P. A., & Konarski, R. (2023). Work addiction, work engagement, job burnout, and perceived stress: A network analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1130069

Clark, M. A., Michel, J. S., Zhdanova, L., Pui, S. Y., & Baltes, B. B. (2016). All work and no play? A meta-analytic examination of the correlates and outcomes of workaholism. Journal of Management, 42(7), 1836-1873. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206314522301

De Beer, L. T., Horn, J., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2022). Construct and criterion validity of the Dutch workaholism scale (DUWAS) within the South African financial services context. SAGE Open, 12(1), 215824402210798. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440221079879

Engelbrecht, G. J., De Beer, L. T., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2019). The relationships between work intensity, workaholism, burnout, and self‐reported musculoskeletal complaints. Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing & Service Industries, 30(1), 59-70. https://doi.org/10.1002/hfm.20821

Fawzy, N. A., Tahir, M. J., Saeed, A., Ghosheh, M. J., Alsheikh, T., Ahmed, A., Lee, K. Y., & Yousaf, Z. (2023). Incidence and factors associated with burnout in radiologists: A systematic review. European Journal of Radiology Open, 11, 100530. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejro.2023.100530

Gonçalves, L., Meneses, J., Sil, S., Silva, T., & Moreira, A. C. (2023). Workaholism scales: Some challenges ahead. Behavioral Sciences, 13(7), 529. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs1307052

Halbesleben, J. R., & Demerouti, E. (2005). The construct validity of an alternative measure of burnout: Investigating the English translation of the oldenburg burnout inventory. Work & Stress, 19(3), 208-220. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370500340728

Hintz, A. M., Gomes-Filho, I. S., Loomer, P. M., De Sousa Pinho, P., De Santana Passos-Soares, J., Trindade, S. C., Cerqueira, E. D., Alves, C. M., Rios, Y. S., Batista, J. E., Figueiredo, A. C., & Cruz, S. S. (2023). Depression and associated factors among Brazilian adults: The 2019 national healthcare population-based study. BMC Psychiatry, 23(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-023-05133-9

Jin, T., Zhou, Y., & Zhang, L. (2023). Job stressors and burnout among clinical nurses: A moderated mediation model of need for recovery and career calling. BMC Nursing, 22(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-023-01524-1

Joo, M. J., Jang, Y. S., Jang, Y. S., & Park, E. (2023). Association between work-related physical activity and depressive symptoms in Korean workers: Data from the Korea national health and nutrition examination survey 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2020. BMC Public Health, 23(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-16631-6

Kamarudin, A., Wong, W. P., & Anwar, N. (2022). The impact of sample size on the reliability of research findings in organizational studies. Journal of Business Research, 135, 109-118.

Kang, S. (2020). Workaholism in Korea: Prevalence and socio-demographic differences. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.569744

Kasemy, Z. A., Abd-Ellatif, E. E., Abdel Latif, A. A., Bahgat, N. M., Shereda, H. M., Shattla, S. I., Aboalizm, S. E., Abd Elhy, A. H., Allam, A. R., Ramadan, A. N., Amer, H. M., Ahmed, N. A., AlJifri, A. A., & El Dalatony, M. M. (2020). Prevalence of workaholism among Egyptian healthcare workers with assessment of its relation to quality of life, mental health and burnout. Frontiers in Public Health, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.581373

Kim, S., Gil, M., & Min, E. J. (2023). Machine learning models for predicting depression in Korean young employees. Frontiers in Public Health, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1201054

Kuehner, C. (2017). Why is depression more common among women than among men? The Lancet Psychiatry, 4(2), 146-158. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366(16)30263-2

Kunecka, D., & Hundert, M. (2018). The extent of workaholism in a group of Polish nurses. The International Journal of Health Planning and Management, 34(1). https://doi.org/10.1002/hpm.2636

Littman-Ovadia, H., Balducci, C., & Ben-Moshe, T. (2013). Psychometric properties of the Hebrew version of the Dutch work addiction scale (DUWAS-10). The Journal of Psychology, 148(3), 327-346. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2013.801334

Lundin, A., Möller, J., & Forsell, Y. (2023). The major depression inventory for diagnosing according to DSM‐5 and ICD‐11: Psychometric properties and validity in a Swedish general population. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research. https://doi.org/10.1002/mpr.1966

Makhdoom, I. F., Malik, N. I., Atta, M., Malik, N., Qureshi, M. G., Shahid, M., & Tang, K. (2022). When workaholism is negatively associated with burnout: A moderated mediation. Frontiers in Public Health, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.968837

Matsudaira, K., Shimazu, A., Fujii, T., Kubota, K., Sawada, T., Kikuchi, N., & Takahashi, M. (2013). Workaholism as a risk factor for depressive mood, disabling back pain, and sickness absence. PLoS ONE, 8(9), e75140. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0075140

Mazzetti, G., Schaufeli, W. B., & Guglielmi, D. (2018). Are workaholism and work engagement in the eye of the beholder? European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 34(1), 30-40. https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000318

Midje, H. H., Nafstad, I. T., Syse, J., & Torp, S. (2014). Workaholism and mental health problems among municipal middle managers in Norway. Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine, 56(10), 1042-1051. https://doi.org/10.1097/jom.0000000000000223

Milicev, J., McCann, M., Simpson, S. A., Biello, S. M., & Gardani, M. (2021). Evaluating mental health and wellbeing of postgraduate researchers: Prevalence and contributing factors. Current Psychology, 42(14), 12267-12280. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02309-y

Molino, M., Cortese, C., & Ghislieri, C. (2018). Daily effect of recovery on exhaustion: A cross-level interaction effect of workaholism. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 15(9), 1920. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15091920

Morkevičiūtė, M., Endriulaitienė, A., & Poškus, M. S. (2021). Understanding the etiology of workaholism: The results of the systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health, 36(4), 351-372. https://doi.org/10.1080/15555240.2021.1968882

Nie, Y., & Sun, H. (2016). Why do workaholics experience depression? A study with Chinese University teachers. Journal of Health Psychology, 21(10), 2339-2346. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105315576350

Rogowska, A. M., Zmaczyńska-Witek, B., & Olejniczak, P. (2021). Depression and workaholism in undergraduates: Examining gender as a moderator. Journal of American College Health, 70(8), 2445-2453. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2020.1865976

Serrano-Fernández, M., Boada-Grau, J., Boada-Cuerva, M., & Vigil-Colet, A. (2021). Work addiction as a predictor of anxiety and depression. Work, 68(3), 779-788. https://doi.org/10.3233/wor-203411

Shimazu, A., Schaufeli, W. B., & Taris, T. W. (2010). How does workaholism affect worker health and performance? The mediating role of coping. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 17(2), 154-160. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-010-9077-x

Stein, K., & Milne, R. (1999). Mental health technology assessment: Practice based research to support evidence-based practice. Evidence-Based Mental Health, 2(2), 37-39. https://doi.org/10.1136/ebmh.2.2.3

Sun, R., Yang, H. M., Chau, C. T., Cheong, I. S., & Wu, A. M. (2022). Psychological empowerment, work addiction, and burnout among mental health professionals. Current Psychology, 42(29), 25602-25613. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03663-1

Tanaka, M., Hirano, Y., Takanashi, R., Numata, N., Sutoh, C., Yoshikawa, T., & Shimizu, E. (2023). Measurement of work-related psychological injury with depressive symptoms. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2420395/v1

Torp, S., Lysfjord, L., & Midje, H. H. (2018). undefined. Higher Education, 76(6), 1071-1090. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-018-0247-0

Vedoato, T., Pedro, D. R., Galdino, M. J., Aroni, P., Radovanovic, C. A., Martins, J. T., & Haddad, M. D. (2021). Association between workaholism and quality of life in stricto sensu graduate professors in nursing. Revista Brasileira de Enfermagem, 74(2). https://doi.org/10.1590/0034-7167-2019-0901

Weston, G., Zilanawala, A., Webb, E., Carvalho, L. A., & McMunn, A. (2019). Long work hours, weekend working and depressive symptoms in men and women: Findings from a UK population-based study. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 73(5), 465-474. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2018-211309

Yang, X., Qiu, D., Lau, M. C., & Lau, J. T. (2020). The mediation role of work-life balance stress and chronic fatigue in the relationship between workaholism and depression among Chinese male workers in Hong Kong. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 9(2), 483-490. https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.2020.00026

Zadow, A. J., Dollard, M. F., Dormann, C., & Landsbergis, P. (2021). Predicting new major depression symptoms from long working hours, psychosocial safety climate and work engagement: A population-based cohort study. BMJ Open, 11(6), e044133. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-044133

Zhang, X., & Zhang, Y. (2021). Statistical power and sample size considerations in psychological research. Journal of Applied Psychology, 106(7), 993-1002.


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


DISCLAIMER

The editors and publisher of Jurnal Psikologi Malaysia have made every possible effort to verify the accuracy of all information contained in this publication. Any opinions, discussions, views and recommendations expressed in the article are solely those of the authors and are not of Jurnal Psikologi Malaysia, its editors or its publisher. Jurnal Psikologi Malaysia, its editors and its publisher will not be liable for any direct, indirect, consequential, special, exemplary, or other damages arising therefrom.