Stability and change in burnout 249
A major issue is how burnout develops over time. As we will see below, it seems that burnout is quite stable, at least across time periods up to about 3 years. Studies that take a life-span perspective on burnout by covering longer time frames of, say, one decade or more like the current investigation, are virtually lacking. Knowledge about the longterm stability of burnout is important because life-span approaches such as the selective optimization with compensation model (Baltes & Baltes, 1990) and the motivational theory of life-span development (Heckhausen, Worsch, & Schulz, 2010) assume that well-being, satisfaction and motivation – all relevant in the job context – change in the course of a person’s life span. Alternatively, scholars in the
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For instance, based on a twin study, Lykken and Tellegen (1996) estimated that 80% of the long-term stable variance in subjective well-being is heritable. This leads them to the somewhat gloomy conclusion that ‘ . . . trying to be happier [may be] as futile as trying to be taller’
(p. 189). Recent psychophysiological (Tops et al., 2006) and electroencephalographical
(EEG) research (Van Luijtelaar, Verbaak, van den Bunbt, Keijsers, & Arns, 2010) suggests a psychobiological basis of burnout, which also would be compatible with the chronic – and possibly heritable and psychobiological – nature of burnout (see below). Of course, because of complex gene–environment interactions, the developmental and hereditary perspectives are not mutually exclusive (Tabery, 2007). Therefore, an accurate estimation of the long-term stability of burnout, which still stands out, would contribute to the debate between advocates of the life-span approach versus those of the heritability approach. So, the first aim of our study is to assess the stability of burnout across a 10-year period in a representative sample of Dutch primary health