A Study of the Effects of Clients’ Service Misuse and Service Manager’s Support on the Job Burnout of Caregivers: Focusing on the Mediating Effects of Job Stress

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of clients’ service misuse and service manager’s support on the job burnout of caregivers, focusing on the mediating effects of job stress. The analysis of the data collected from 207 caregivers for the aged and personal assistance service providers for the disabled shows that overall degree of clients’ service misuse is not serious but that “doing housework against the regulation,” “requesting extra-services,” “demanding unreasonable change of staff,” “spending for personal expenses,” and “unfair trade of vouchers” are high in descending order. Regarding the experiences of clients’ service misuse, caregivers for the aged have significantly higher experience than personal assistance service providers for the disabled. Regarding job stress, personal assistance service providers for the disabled are under significantly higher stress than caregivers for the aged. The Structural Equation Model analysis of the relationships among clients’ service misuse, service manager’s support, job stress, and job burnout indicates that those who have more experiences of clients’ service misuse have higher jobs tress, that those who have more manager’s support have lower job stress. The result shows that clients’ service misuse and manager’s support do not have direct effects on the job burnout, but indirectly affect job burnout through job stress.