Purpose: To determine the significant effect of psycho-social risk factors and burnout on mental health in a sample of Mexican workers.
Method: An explanatory, ex post-facto, cross-sectional research was conducted on a sample of 356 workers from three public and three private organizations. The procedure consisted of applying: a) Reference Guide III of NOM-035 (STPS, 2018) to measure psycho-social risk factors, b) the Occupational Burnout Scale (Uribe, 2010) to measure burnout, and c) the Mental Health Inventory (Gutierrez & Guido, 2017) to measure mental health (both poor and functional).
Results: The results of the hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis indicated a significant and negative effect of burnout (exhaustion [beta = -0.201, p = 0.001] and achievement dissatisfaction [beta = -0.258, p = 0.001]) on functional mental health. In contrast, work control [beta = -0.134, p = 0.001] and the de-personalization factor [beta = 0.318, p = 0.001] also had a positive effect on functional mental health. Work-family interference was found to have a negative and significant effect [beta = -0.349, p = 0.001]. Regarding poor mental health, exhaustion [beta = 0.299, p = 0.001], and achievement dissatisfaction [beta = 0.241, p = 0.001] showed a significant positive effect. The greater the worker's burnout and job dissatisfaction, the more their mental health deficits increase. conversely, de-personalization [beta = -0.261, p = 0.001] has a negative effect on mental health deficits. Additionally, work-family interference was found to have a positive and significant effect [beta = 0.276, p = 0.001] on poor mental health.
Conclusions: a) Two psycho-social risk factors (low work control and work-family interference) and the three burnout factors have a significant effect on functional mental health, and b) One psycho-social risk factor (interference in the work-family relationship) and the three burnout factors have a significant effect on poor mental health.