Drawing on data provided by 287 Catholic priests, religious brothers, and religious sisters from different parts of Italy (130 men and 157 women), this study explored the effect of three dark psychological variables and three bright psychological variables on levels of professional burnout as assessed by the two scales of the Francis Burnout Inventory (emotional exhaustion and satisfaction in ministry). The three dark psychological variables assessed by the Short Dark Triad were Machiavellianism, subclinical narcissism, and subclinical psychopathy. The three bright psychological variables were purpose in life, emotional intelligence, and religious faith. After controlling for personal factors (age and sex) and personality factors (extraversion and emotionality), the data demonstrated that the three bright psychological factors (purpose in life, emotional intelligence, and religious faith) served as independent and cumulative predictors of higher levels of satisfaction in ministry and that the three dark psychological factors had no effect on satisfaction in ministry. Two of the three dark psychological factors (Machiavellianism, and subclinical psychopathy) served as independent and cumulative predictors of higher levels of emotional exhaustion in ministry, and purpose in life served as a predictor of lower levels of emotional exhaustion in ministry.

本研究利用来自意大利不同地区（130 名男性和 157 名女性）的 287 名天主教神父、宗教兄弟和修女提供的数据，探讨了三个黑暗心理变量和三个明亮心理变量对职业倦怠程度的影响。通过弗朗西斯职业倦怠量表的两个量表（情绪耗竭和事工满意度）。Short Dark Triad 评估的三个黑暗心理变量是马基雅维利主义、亚临床自恋和亚临床精神病。三个明亮的心理变量是人生目标、情商和宗教信仰。在控制个人因素（年龄和性别）和性格因素（外向性和情绪性）后，数据表明三个明亮的心理因素（人生目标、情商和宗教信仰）是事工满意度较高的独立和累积预测因子，并且三个黑暗的心理因素对事工满意度没有影响。三个黑暗心理因素中的两个（马基雅维利主义和亚临床精神病）作为独立和累积预测因子在事工中情绪耗竭程度较高，而生活目标则是事工中情绪耗竭程度较低的预测因素。