The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) is the mainstream measure for burnout. However, its psychometric properties have been questioned, and alternative measurement models of the inventory have been suggested. Different models for the number of items and factors of the MBI-HSS, the version of the Inventory for the Human Service sector, were tested in order to identify the most appropriate model for measuring burnout in Italy. The study dataset consisted of a sample of 925 nurses. Ten alternative models of burnout were compared using confirmatory factor analysis. The psychometric properties of items and reliability of the MBI-HSS subscales were evaluated. Item malfunctioning may confound the MBI-HSS factor structure. The analysis confirmed the factorial structure of the MBI-HSS with a three-dimensional, 20-item assessment. The factorial structure underlying the MBI-HSS follows Maslach’s definition when items are reduced from the original 22 to a 20-item set. Alternative models, either with fewer items or with an increased number of latent dimensions in the burnout structure, do not yield better results to justify redefining the item set or theoretically revising the syndrome construct.

Objective: Demographic changes involving western countries and later retirements due to the recent pension reforms induce a gradual aging of the workforce. This imply an increasing number of workers with health problems and a decreasing of ability to work. In this direction, the present study aims at examining the role of job and personal resources between age and work ability within nurses. Method: The study was cross-sectional and not randomized; data were collected by a self-report questionnaire during a multi-center survey conducted in two Italian hospitals in 2016. In this way, 333 nurses were reached. Results: Multiple linear regression showed that age is significantly and negatively associated to work ability, and that job resources (e.g., decision authority and meaning of work) and personal resources (e.g., hope and resilience) moderate the relationship between age and work ability. Discussion: These results highlight that investing in work and personal resources to support WA is even more relevant for those professions where high physical effort is required.

Background: A growing number of studies reveal that there are significant associations between a patient’s perception of quality of care and a health professional’s perceived quality of work life. Previous studies focused on the patients or on the workers. Alternatively, they centre the discussion on either the negative or the positive effects, both on patients and care workers. This research work focuses on the positive relationship with patients - a possible resource for care workers. Method: Study 1: a CFA was conducted to test the factorial structure and the tenure of the Italian version for patients of the Customer-initiated Support scale. Study 2: using a multi-group path analysis, the effects of work characteristics and of the relationship with patients on burnout were tested in two different contexts: emergency and oncology ward. Results: Study 1: the one-factor instrument shows good reliability, convergent and divergent validity. Study 2: for oncology nurses cognitive demands, job autonomy, and support from patients have direct effects on emotional exhaustion and job autonomy; interactions between cognitive demands and patients’ support have an effect on depersonalization. For emergency nurses cognitive demands and interactions between job autonomy and support from patients have effects on emotional exhaustion; job autonomy, patients support and gratitude have direct effects on personal accomplishment. Conclusions: Results confirm expectations about the role of patients’ support and gratitude in reducing nurses’ burnout, with differences in the two contexts: emergency nurses show higher burnout and lower perception of positive relationship with patients, but present more intense protective effects of the interaction between job autonomy and support/gratitude. Suggestions can be offered to managers in developing interventions to promote “healthy organization” culture that consider jointly employees and patients’ needs.

The study aims to propose a systematic and innovative model of purchase intention development that integrates Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) with its main extensions and clarifies the logical status of the variables involved and the structure of the causal path. The TPB is the most useful predictive model of purchase intentions, which can be viewed as the product of various psychological determinants. Previous works have proposed extensions of the TPB model to selectively include knowledge, trust or social norms, but an integrated proposal has not yet been formulated. Based on a survey in four European countries (Germany, Italy, Poland and the UK; N = 1,035), this study tests the process of organic vegetable purchase intention development using a structural equation model (SEM). This comprises part of the measurement of latent variables and part of the analysis of dependency relationships (MLR estimation method). The results show that purchase intention for organic vegetables is primarily dependent on positive moral attitude (PoMA) towards such consumption. The inclusion of PoMA reduces the effect of attitude toward buying organic vegetables, but the effects of social norms, past behaviour and perceived behavioural control remain significant. This study proposes an innovative model to explain purchase intention for organic vegetables that incorporates the key current extensions of the TPB model (knowledge, trust and PoMA) into an integrated causal pathway. Understanding the relationships between the antecedents of purchase intention provides relevant information on “what” needs to be improved and “where” interventions are needed to steer consumers towards organic food.

Background: Despite the growing presence of menopausal women in workplaces, studies aimed at exploring the link between menopausal symptoms and job well-being are scarce. In the interest of addressing this gap, the present study aimed to explore whether menopausal symptoms might contribute to increased levels of burnout and whether this relationship can be moderated by social or personal resources. Method: The study design was cross-sectional and non-randomized. Ninety-four menopausal nurses completed a self-report questionnaire including scales aimed at measuring menopausal symptoms, burnout, social (i.e., support from superiors and colleagues) and personal (i.e., self-efficacy, resilience, and optimism) resources. Moderated regression analyses were performed to test study hypotheses. Results: Whereas menopausal symptoms were associated significantly with emotional exhaustion, no social or personal resources were found to moderate this relationship. Regarding depersonalization, our study indicated that it was affected by menopausal symptoms only among nurses who reported low social support (from superiors and colleagues), optimism, and resilience. Conclusion: The present study highlights the importance of organizations that employ a growing number of menopausal women to seek solutions at the individual and social levels that help these women deal with their menopausal transition while working.