The extent to which burnout refers to anything other than a depressive condition remains an object of controversy among occupational health specialists. In three studies conducted in two different countries and two different languages, we investigated the discriminant validity of burnout scales by evaluating the magnitude of the correlation between (latent) burnout and (latent) depression. In Study 1 (N = 911), burnout was assessed with the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey's Exhaustion subscale and depression with the depression module of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ). In Study 2 (N = 1,386), the Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure was used to assess burnout and the PHQ, depression. In Study 3 (N = 734), burnout was assessed with the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey and depression, with the PHQ and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale; additionally, anxiety was measured with the Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale. In each study, we examined the burnout-depression association based on confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), controlling for item-level content overlap. In the three studies, latent exhaustion, the core of burnout, and latent depression were highly correlated (correlations ranging from .83 to .88). In Studies 2 and 3, second-order CFAs indicated that depressive (and anxiety) symptoms and the exhaustion and depersonalization components of burnout are reflective of the same second-order distress/dysphoria factor. Our findings, with their replication across samples, languages, and measures, together with meta-analytic findings, cast serious doubt on the discriminant validity of the burnout construct. The implications of burnout's problematic discriminant validity are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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探究倦怠与抑郁之间的相关性。

职业倦怠在多大程度上是指除抑郁症以外的任何事物，仍然是职业健康专家争论的对象。在两个不同国家和两种不同语言下进行的三项研究中，我们通过评估（潜在）倦怠与（潜在）抑郁之间的相关程度，调查了倦怠量表的判别效度。在研究1（N = 911）中，用Maslach倦怠量表-一般调查的疲倦量表和抑郁症与患者健康问卷（PHQ）的抑郁量进行评估。在研究2中（N = 1,386），使用了Shirom-Melamed倦怠测量来评估倦怠和PHQ抑郁。在研究3（N = 734）中，倦怠是通过Maslach倦怠量表教育者调查和抑郁评估的，与PHQ和流行病学研究中心抑郁量表一起使用；另外，用广义焦虑症量表测量焦虑。在每项研究中，我们根据验证性因素分析（CFA）检查了倦怠与抑郁的关联，并控制了项目级内容的重叠。在这三项研究中，潜伏性疲劳，倦怠的核心和潜伏性抑郁症高度相关（相关性介于0.83至0.88之间）。在研究2和研究3中，二阶CFAs表示抑郁（和焦虑）症状以及倦怠的疲惫和去个性化成分反映了相同的二阶困扰/烦躁因素。我们的发现，以及它们在样本，语言和度量之间的复制，以及荟萃分析的发现，对倦怠结构的判别有效性产生了严重的怀疑。讨论了倦怠问题的判别效度的含义。（PsycINFO数据库记录（c）2019 APA，保留所有权利）。