The Interrelationships of Leisure Attitude, Leisure Satisfaction, Leisure Behavior, Intrinsic Motivation and Burnout Among Clergy

Abstract

This study focused on the interrelationships of leisure behavior, leisure attitude, leisure satisfaction, intrinsic motivation, and burnout among clergy in The United Methodist Church in Western North Carolina. Responses were obtained from the clergy by a questionnaire that operationalized the primary variables (i.e., leisure behavior, leisure attitude, leisure satisfaction, intrinsic motivation), demographic variables (i.e., gender, age, marital status, education, years in ministry, years in present church), and burnout with its three components (i .e., emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, personal accomplishment). A systematic random sample, further stratified to include no less than one-half of all women clergy in their geographic districts, was taken. A final sample of 438 was obtained representing a 55% return rate. Hypothesized relationships among study variables were tested using path analytic techniques. Also, tests of reliability were run on each of the instruments to compare them with prior studies. Significant relationships among several variables were detected, with the entire pool of independent variables accounting for about 27% of the variance in emotional exhaustion, 22% in depersonalization and 27% in personal accomplishment. Variables with significant relationships with emotional exhaustion included age, years in ministry, years in present church, leisure behavior, and leisure satisfaction. In each of these cases, the relationships were direct and inverse. Variables with significant relationships (all direct and inverse) with depersonalization included age, years in ministry, leisure behavior, leisure satisfaction and intrinsic motivation. Variables found to have significant relationships to personal accomplishment were leisure behavior, leisure satisfaction, and intrinsic motivation. In each of these cases, the relationships were found to be direct and positive. Further, significant relationships existed among the independent variables that confirmed earlier studies highlighting the positive relationship between intrinsic motivation, leisure attitude and leisure satisfaction.