From Ownership to Well-Being: Understanding the Relationships Among Collective Psychological Ownership, Burnout, Job Autonomy, and Depressive Symptoms

Introduction：

Social workers are exposed to tremendous emotional and psychological risks, thus there is a notable prevalence of depression in social workers. Collective Psychological Ownership (CPO) refers to a shared sense of ownership and responsibility that employees feel towards their organization, especially during challenging times. CPO has been found to play a beneficial role in mitigating burnout among social workers. Job autonomy refers to the degree of independence employees have in carrying out their work. Higher job autonomy has been linked to better psychological well-being among social workers. Extensive studies have examined the association between social workers’burnout and depressive symptoms. However, little has been known about how CPO and job autonomy influences such associations. This study aims to explore the dynamics among CPO, burnout, job autonomy, and depressive symptoms. We hypothesize that CPO is negatively associated with depressive symptoms through burnout, and high job autonomy could buffer the association between burnout and depressive symptoms.

Methods：

This study adopted a quantitative research design using data from the 2019 wave of the China Social Work Longitudinal Study (CSWLS), which involved 5,902 social workers from 56 cities in China, selected through a rigorous two-stage random sampling process. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, CPO was measured using the collective psychological ownership scale, burnout was evaluated with the Maslach Burnout Inventory–Human Services Survey, and job autonomy was assessed using a three-item subscale from the Job Content Questionnaire. Analysis was performed using SPSS version 26.0 and the PROCESS macro to conduct detailed mediation and moderated mediation analyses.

Results：

The mediation analysis shows that CPO is negatively associated with burnout (β = -0.97, p < 0.001) but positively associated with depressive symptoms (β = 0.13, p < 0.001). Furthermore, burnout is positively associated with depressive symptoms (β = 0.29, p < 0.001), indicating a complex interaction where lower burnout mediated by CPO paradoxically associates with higher depressive symptoms due to the direct positive association between CPO and depressive symptoms. The moderated mediation results shows that job autonomy moderates the relationships among the variables (β = 0.17, p < 0.05). Specifically, the association is stronger when job autonomy is low (β = -0.95, SE = 0.08, 95%CI [-1.10, -0.80]) compared to when it is high (β = -0.78, SE = 0.06, 95%CI [-0.91, -0.66]). This indicates that social workers with lower job autonomy experience a greater reduction in burnout associated with CPO than those with higher job autonomy.

Conclusion：

This study uncovers that CPO increases depressive symptoms through burnout. This finding challenges the prevailing assumption that CPO consistently operates to the benefit of mental health outcomes and calls for a more nuanced understanding of the mechanisms through which CPO impacts the emotional well-being of social workers. Moreover, the study' s identification of job autonomy as a moderating factor introduces a critical consideration for the design and implementation of workplace policies and interventions aimed at enhancing social workers' mental health.

Keywords: collective psychological ownership, job autonomy, burnout, depressive symptoms, social workers