Occupational Exhaustion among Prison Staff: Multivariate Analysis of Correlates Associated with Emotional Exhaustion

This article investigates the multivariate relationship between personal characteristics of prison staff, their work rank within the organizational hierarchy, working conditions, constraints of personal accomplishment, stressresponse states, and the emotional exhaustion. Specifically, this study attempts to determine the amount of variation that can be explained in emotional exhaustion, the main dependant variable, by using the above variables. The analysis are based on the data that were collected in 2010 from 480 prison staff members in three prisons in the State of Indiana, U.S.A. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that the best predictors of emotional exhaustion among prison staff are stress-response states and constraints of personal accomplishment, both of which are positively associated with emotional exhaustion. A thirteen-variable regression model used in this study explains 51% of the variation in the emotional exhaustion. Keyword: prison staff, emotional exhaustion, stress-response states, personal accomplishment, prison working conditions.