Construct Validity of the Chinese Version-Maslach Burnout Inventory (C-MBI) Among Master Social Work Students in China

Background: Social work students may suffer the burnout in their practica which might be reaction to strains and stressors and eventually impair their learning and performance. In order to understand and improve social work students’ field learning and performance, there is a need to assess students’ burnout during their practica. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) has been a widely used measurement in the field of human service professionals. It is characterized by Emotional Exhaustion (EE), Depersonalization (DP), and Personal Accomplishment (PA). However, there is no study on the validation of MBI in the context of China. The objective of this study was to investigate the construct validity of the MBI in Master of Social Work (MSW) students in Mainland China.

Methods: After translated into Chinese and reviewed by an expert panel on its content validity and cultural relevance, the Chinese version-MBI (C-MBI) was introduced to all 61 MSW programs in Mainland China as one part of students’ field learning study. Data was randomly split into two sets. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted to test the possible factor structure of the C-MBI on the first data set (Principal Factors Analysis; oblique promax rotation; cutoff point < .4) and the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was conducted to determine the best-fit model on the second data set. Cronbach’s alpha, factorial invariance across gender and bachelor major, and predictive validity were also examined.

Results: There are 736 MSW students from 52 MSW programs completing all the items of C-MBI. Response rate is 47.6%(736/1546—total graduates of the 52 programs in 2015) in student-level and 85.2% (52/61) in program-level. The profile of the MSW-student sample is 76.5% female, 65.3% with BSW degree, and 73.8% from families of annual household income below USD16, 200.

EFA replicated the same three-factor structure (EE, PA, and DP) explaining 57% of the total variance with minor adjustment of deleting one item. CFA supported a stable three-factor second-order structure (CFI=.913; RMSEA=.071) and indicated EE and DP were core components of burnout in Chinese – consistent with the finding from California social workers. The subscales of the C-MBI demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency (EE =. 92, PA = .89, and DP =.88). There is no factorial invariance across gender and bachelor major based on the multi-group analyses indicating by Z-scores. Furthermore, to investigate the predictive validity, three sub-scales of C-MBI were then related to satisfaction with fieldwork and supervision quality, which were hypothesized to have high correlations with burnout in social work field education. It turned out that EE and PA were statistically significantly correlated with the two hypothesized variables.   

Conclusion: The C-MBI possessed satisfactory psychometric properties in Chinese MSW student samples. However, it should be highlighted that the C-MBI did not explain much variance in PA (19%) and DP is not correlated with the hypothesized antecedent and consequent variables. This could be results of culturally-specific variances on the implementation of personal accomplishment and the understanding of depersonalization. Future studies on C-MBI could take into account more cultural characteristics of non-western groups.