Convergent and discriminant validity of burnout syndrome in Mexican teachers

Abstract

Objective: to explore the convergent and discriminant validity of the maslach burnout inventory human services survey (MBI-HSS) and the Spanish Burnout Inventory (SBI) in Mexican population. Method: 483 teachers from 100 basic education schools (primary and secondary) were evaluated in Mexico City. The mexican validated SBI by Gil-Monte, Unda and Sandoval (2009) and MBI-HSS validated in Mexican population by Placencia et al. (2013) were implemented, both are Likert scales that showed acceptable reliability. In the data analysis, a Multi-treat-Multi-method matrix (MTMM) was performed, which is an approach developed by Campbell and Fiske (1959) to analyze convergent and divergent validity. Results: MTMM showed significant positive and non-zero correlations between the same traits measured by different method, enthusiasm toward the job and personal accomplishment (r = 0,40 **) psychic exhaustion and emotional exhaustion (r = 0,87 **), and indolence and depersonalization (r = 0,52 **) which supposes convergent validity, in addition, it can be observed that all cronbach’s alphas are acceptable except for depersonalization (subscale of MBI). The MBI-HSS recurrently presents cronbach’s alphas lower than 0,70 on the depersonalization subscale, especially in non-English-speaking population. Conclusion: According to the results of this study and the psychometric difficulties presented by the MBI-HSS, the SBI is the recommended instrument for the evaluation of Burnout in the Mexican population.