AN EXHAUSTIVE EXAMINATION OF THE REPLICABLE FACTOR STRUCTURE OF THE MASLACH BURNOUT INVENTORY

Three-factor first order analyses have been used in the most successful Of previous attempts to define thc factor and subscale structures of the Maslach Burnout Inventory. It is suggested in the present paper that although a three factor structure has been shown to be the most readily replicable, this result does not exhaust the number of possible replicable factors in the Inventory. Using six independent sets of data drawn from previous studies involving a variety of subjects, the present analysis revealed the somewhat doubtful status of the general factor underlying the total score on the 22 items of the Inventory. In all six sets of data, the 22 items of the Inventory also divided between two clearly replicable factors, the larger of which was tentatively identified as the "Core of Burnout." Responses to the 14 items loading on this factor were subsequently found to divide in tum, into two equally replicable factors. These two factors, together with that differentiated from the "Core of Burnout," were exactly the same as those most frequently identified in previous three factor analyses of the Inventory.