Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. The crossover of burnout and its relation to partner health Arnold B. Bakker* ,† Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands * Correspondence to: Arnold B. Bakker, Erasmus Uni- versity Rotterdam, Institute of Psychology, Woud- estein, T12-47, P.O. Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands. † Email: bakker@fsw.eur.nl. Stress and Health Stress and Health 25: 343–353 (2009) Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/smi.1278 Received 25 March 2009; Accepted 21 July 2009 Summary Two studies among medical residents and teachers in the Netherlands and Greece tested the hypothesis that burnout may transfer from employees to their intimate partners at home and indirectly influence the partner’s health. Study 1 included a general index of self-rated health, whereas, Study 2 included a detailed measure of depression. Results show that burnout crosses over and that partner burnout is related to health (negative) and depression (positive). Moreover, both studies supported the mediating role of partner burnout in the relationship between employee burnout and partner health/depression. Additionally, results were similar when partner burnout was used as the predictor variable of medical residents’ and teachers’ health through their burnout. These findings are discussed in light of the recently proposed spillover–crossover model. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key Words burnout; crossover; depression; health; spillover–crossover model Introduction Previous research has shown that job burnout is related to psychological and physical health (Schaufeli & Enzmann, 1998; Melamed, Shirom, Toker, Berliner, & Shapira, 2006). Thus, burned- out employees who are chronically fatigued and cynical about their work may suffer from head- aches, dizziness, stomach pain and back pain—to name only a few health problems. Since fatigue and cynicism are highly visible symptoms, it is likely that burnout is communicated from employ- ees to their partners at home (Bakker, Westman, & Van Emmerik, 2009). Crossover studies have indeed confirmed that burnout is transferred between closely related individuals (Bakker, Demerouti, & Schaufeli, 2005; Westman & Bakker, 2008). The present research uses crossover theory to investigate whether and how employees’ burnout symptoms are related to their intimate partner’s health. Specifically, two studies among risk groups conducted in two countries will examine the extent to which burnout crosses over from employees to their partners at home and is indi- rectly predictive of the partners’ depressive symp- toms and self-rated health. Before substantiating these claims, I will briefly define burnout and discuss its relationship with health. Burnout and health Burned-out employees have high levels of exhaus- tion and they endorse negative attitudes towards their work (Demerouti & Bakker, 2008; Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001). Exhaustion refers to chronic fatigue that is the response to prolonged exposure to high job demands and a lack of job