Relative importance of psychosocial and organizational predictors of burnout among European researchers: a dominance analysis
- 1Centre for Primary Care and Public Health (Unisanté), University of Lausanne
- 2Amsterdam Business School, University of Amsterdam
Abstract
Objectives: Burnout is increasingly reported among researchers in European academia; however, the relative importance of its psychosocial and organizational determinants across career stages remains insufficiently understood. This study aimed to rank the relative importance of a defined set of predictors of burnout among junior and senior researchers.
Methods: Cross-sectional data were drawn from the European Researcher Mental Health Observatory (ReMO) Staircase survey ( N = 4,026). Burnout was assessed using the 12-item Burnout Assessment Tool. Analyses were conducted separately for junior and senior researchers. Missing data were addressed using multiple imputation by chained equations. Dominance analysis estimated the relative importance of twelve predictors among junior researchers and ten among senior researchers based on their contribution to explained variance (R ² ), with bootstrapped confidence intervals computed for all predictors.
Results: The models explained substantial variance in burnout ( R ² = 0.485 for junior researchers; R ² = 0.515 for senior researchers). Resilience and role clarity emerged as the most important predictors in both groups, followed by work–family conflict and work-related stress. Illegitimate tasks showed somewhat greater dominance among senior researchers (in a comparison restricted to the ten predictors shared by both groups), while other predictors contributed similarly across career stages. Confidence intervals indicated that several mid-ranked predictors were not clearly separable from one another. The overall pattern of predictor dominance was broadly consistent across career stages and analytical approaches.
Conclusion: Burnout in academia reflects systemic features of modern higher education, including high workload, role ambiguity, administrative burden, and competitive evaluation systems. These results support a shift from individual-focused interventions toward structural reforms. A Total Worker Health approach is recommended, emphasizing improved role clarity, workload regulation, job stability, and more balanced reward systems to promote sustainable academic careers.
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BibTeX
@article{noe2026relative,
title = {{Relative importance of psychosocial and organizational predictors of burnout among European researchers: a dominance analysis}},
author = {May Thet Nu Noe and Pascal Wild and Stefan T. Mol and Irina Guseva Canu},
journal = {Frontiers in Public Health},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3389/fpubh.2026.1900453},
url = {https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2026.1900453/full},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Relative importance of psychosocial and organizational predictors of burnout among European researchers: a dominance analysis
AU - May Thet Nu Noe
AU - Pascal Wild
AU - Stefan T. Mol
AU - Irina Guseva Canu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/19
JO - Frontiers in Public Health
DO - 10.3389/fpubh.2026.1900453
UR - https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2026.1900453/full
AB - Objectives: Burnout is increasingly reported among researchers in European academia; however, the relative importance of its psychosocial and organizational determinants across career stages remains insufficiently understood. This study aimed to rank the relative importance of a defined set of predictors of burnout among junior and senior researchers. Methods: Cross-sectional data were drawn from the European Researcher Mental Health Observatory (ReMO) Staircase survey ( N = 4,026). Burnout was assessed using the 12-item Burnout Assessment Tool. Analyses were conducted separately for junior and senior researchers. Missing data were addressed using multiple imputation by chained equations. Dominance analysis estimated the relative importance of twelve predictors among junior researchers and ten among senior researchers based on their contribution to explained variance (R ² ), with bootstrapped confidence intervals computed for all predictors. Results: The models explained substantial variance in burnout ( R ² = 0.485 for junior researchers; R ² = 0.515 for senior researchers). Resilience and role clarity emerged as the most important predictors in both groups, followed by work–family conflict and work-related stress. Illegitimate tasks showed somewhat greater dominance among senior researchers (in a comparison restricted to the ten predictors shared by both groups), while other predictors contributed similarly across career stages. Confidence intervals indicated that several mid-ranked predictors were not clearly separable from one another. The overall pattern of predictor dominance was broadly consistent across career stages and analytical approaches. Conclusion: Burnout in academia reflects systemic features of modern higher education, including high workload, role ambiguity, administrative burden, and competitive evaluation systems. These results support a shift from individual-focused interventions toward structural reforms. A Total Worker Health approach is recommended, emphasizing improved role clarity, workload regulation, job stability, and more balanced reward systems to promote sustainable academic careers.
SN - 2296-2565
ER -