Journal of Community Medicine & Health Education
Open Access

Abstract

Work engagement is an important representation of occupational health. The introduction of engagement as a positive antipode of burnout indicates a transition from negative to positive occupational health psychology. The development of job burnout induced heated debate in the field of occupational health psychology. However, to our knowledge, there is no literature investigating the development of engagement with regard to its three dimensions. The goal of our present study was to examine the three dimensions of burnout and engagement in a dynamic light in a three-wave longitudinal design. Considering the likely opposite nature of the core dimensions of burnout and engagement, we compared developing sequences of burnout and engagement in a three-wave longitudinal design based on Maslach?s model (1982) and Golembiewski?s model (1984). We collected responses from 158 IT employees in China. Using M-plus 5.0, we compared four models: the Vigor-Dedication-Absorption model of engagement, the Dedication-Absorption-Vigor model of engagement, the Dedication-Absorption-Vigor model of engagement, and the Vigor- Absorption-Dedication model of engagement. The results of the model comparisons revealed that the data were best fit by the Vigor- Dedication-Absorption model. The results provide useful references for the promotion work engagement and pathways to occupational health.

Biography

Yiqun Gan is a Professor at the Department of Psychology, Peking University, China. She has received her Ph.D. in the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1998. She has published over 70 research papers, among which 18 were on internationally referred journals as the first or corresponding author. She has been in charge of a number of research projects, including projects funded by Natural Science Foundation of China. She serves on the executive editorial board of "Chinese Journal of Mental Health" and is a reviewer for 17 international journals. Her research area focuses on coping, mental health, and job burnout.