Impact of work pressure, work stress and work-family conflict on firefighter burnout.

Little research has explored burnout and its causes in the American fire service. Data were collected from career firefighters in the southeastern United States (n = 208) to explore these relationships. A hierarchical regression model was tested to examine predictors of burnout including sociodemographic characteristics (model 1), work pressure (model 2), work stress and work-family conflict (model 3) and interaction terms (model 4). The main findings suggest that perceived work stress and work-family conflict emerged as the significant predictors of burnout (both p < .001). Interventions and programs aimed at these predictors could potentially curtail burnout among firefighters.