¿Están los factores sociodemográficos asociados al síndrome de burnout en policias? Un meta-análisis correlacional.

Burnout syndrome is considered a long term stress reaction which is seen primarily among professionals who work face-to-face with other people. Socio-demographic characteristics have been suggested as risk factors in the development of burnout, although empirical studies have yield contradictory results. The objective of the present study is to conduct a meta-analytic review of four socio-demographic factors (age, sex, marital status, and number of children) that may be correlated to burnout in police officers. These professionals have been considered a high-risk occupational group to suffer burnout due to specific characteristics of their job. We collected 43 empirical studies that fulfilled the inclusion criteria: 23 on age, 32 on sex, 9 on marital status, and 4 on number of children. The bivariate correlation coefficient was used as the effect size measure. The results show that all the average effect were small, and the majority of them were not statistically significant. We can conclude that sex and age are factors to discard in the development of the burnout syndrome in police officers. We found that many studies did not report enough statistical information to estimate effect sizes. This systematic lack of information is likely to contribute finding contradictory results.Burnout syndrome is considered a long term stress reaction which is seen primarily among professionals who work face-to-face with other people. Socio-demographic characteristics have been suggested as risk factors in the development of burnout, although empirical studies have yield contradictory results. The objective of the present study is to conduct a meta-analytic review of four socio-demographic factors (age, sex, marital status, and number of children) that may be correlated to burnout in police officers. These professionals have been considered a high-risk occupational group to suffer burnout due to specific characteristics of their job. We collected 43 empirical studies that fulfilled the inclusion criteria: 23 on age, 32 on sex, 9 on marital status, and 4 on number of children. The bivariate correlation coefficient was used as the effect size measure. The results show that all the average effect were small, and the majority of them were not statistically significant. We can conclude that sex and age are factors to discard in the development of the burnout syndrome in police officers. We found that many studies did not report enough statistical information to estimate effect sizes. This systematic lack of information is likely to contribute finding contradictory results.El síndrome de burnout se considera una reacción al estrés crónico que se ha observado principalmente en profesionales que trabajan de cara a otras personas. Las características sociodemográficas pueden afectar al desarrollo del síndrome, aunque los resultados obtenidos en los estudios empíricos han sido contradictorios. El objetivo del presente estudio es realizar una revisión meta-analítica sobre cuatro factores sociodemográficos (edad, sexo, estado civil y número de hijos) que pueden estar correlacionados con las dimensiones del Maslach Burnout Inventory (cansancio emocional, despersonalización y realización personal) en policías. Estos profesionales han sido considerados como un grupo de riesgo para desarrollar el síndrome debido a las características de su trabajo. Se obtuvieron 43 estudios empíricos que cumplían con los criterios de inclusión: 23 para edad, 32 para sexo, 9 para estado civil y 4 para número de hijos. Se utilizó el coeficiente de correlación bivariada como métrica del tamaño del efecto. Los resultados mostraron que todos los tamaños del efecto medio fueron bajos y la mayoría de ellos estadísticamente no significativos. Muchos de los estudios empíricos no informaban de suficiente información estadística para estimar los tamaños del efecto medio. Esta falta sistemática de información puede estar contribuyendo a que se sigan encontrando resultados contradictorios