The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 1 - 32

James C . Stoner

Research on resident assistant burnout
peaked in the 1980s, focusing primarily on
personal and physical attributes such as gender,
race, residence hall type, health habits, and employment duration (e.g., Benedict & Mondloch,
1989; Fuehrer & McGonagle, 1988; Nowack,
Gibbons, & Hanson, 1985; Nowack & Hanson,
1983; Paladino et al., 2005). These studies are
not only dated but also yield conflicting findings (see Hardy & Dodd, 1998 and Hetherington, Oliver, & Phelps, 1989). There has been
little research on the topic since the 1980s,
thus creating a void in the contemporary understanding of RA burnout.
The link in other service-oriented jobs (e.g.,
nursing, teaching) between burnout and both
lower job satisfaction (Fisher, 2011; Laschinger,
Leiter, Day, & Gilin, 2009) and early staff departure (Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001) is
well established, yet these topics have not been
explored relative to burnout among RAs. Since
the topic has not received much attention in
the literature as of late, this study serves two
purposes. The first is to update and address
past discrepancies in the RA burnout literature, specifically concerning gender and community composition. The second is to expand
the understanding of RA burnout as it relates
to both job satisfaction and departure from the
position. By identifying RAs who are prone to
burnout, housing professionals can better plan
and coordinate intervention efforts among
their RA staffs to alleviate burnout, thus improving RA retention and job satisfaction.

EMPLOYEE BURNOUT
The phenomenon of burnout first received
scholarly attention during the 1970s in counseling-related fields (e.g., Freudenberger, 1974;

Maslach, 1976, 1978), and results revealed
that employees prone to burnout make personal sacrifices and work long hours because
they are dedicated, committed, and have "a
need to give" (Freudenberger, 1974, p. 162).
The research also found that burnout begins
with mild symptoms and builds over time
(Gentry, Baranowsky, & Dunning, 2002;
Maslach, 1982). This early research defined
three dimensions of burnout that are relevant
to current scholarship: emotional exhaustion,
depersonalization, and personal accomplishment (Maslach, 1976).
Maslach et al. (2001) identified emotional
exhaustion as the most apparent symptom of
burnout, manifesting with "feelings of being
emotionally overextended and exhausted by
one's work" (Maslach & Jackson, 1981, p. 101).
Depersonalization occurs when employees distance themselves from the recipients of their
care (Maslach, 1976) and display impersonal
responses toward their clients (Maslach &
Jackson, 1981). Personal accomplishment consists of "feelings of competence and successful achievement in one's work with people"
(Maslach & Jackson, 1981, p. 101). Maslach
et al. (2001) determined that higher levels of
emotional exhaustion and depersonalization
indicate increased feelings of burnout, while
elevated levels of personal accomplishment indicate lower feelings of burnout.
Research on burnout is common in several
service-oriented professions, such as nursing
and education. Nurses experience an "alarmingly high rate of burnout and turnover in their
first few years of practice" (Laschinger, Wong,
& Grau, 2012, p. 1267). The same is true of
the education field, where teacher retention is
significantly lower compared to that in other

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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 1

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