Burnout Research 1 (2014) 103–111 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Burnout Research jo ur nal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/burn Research Article Maslach Burnout Inventory – General Survey: Factorial validity and invariance among Romanian healthcare professionals  Mara Bria a,∗ , Florina Spânu a , Adriana B˘ aban a , Dan L. Dumitras ¸ cu b a Psychology Department, Babes ¸ – Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, Romania b Medical II Department, University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Iuliu Hat ¸ ieganu”, Cluj-Napoca, Romania a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 31 January 2014 Received in revised form 2 September 2014 Accepted 4 September 2014 Keywords: Maslach Burnout Inventory – General Survey Confirmatory factor analysis Multigroup invariance Healthcare professionals a b s t r a c t This study tested the dimensionality of the Maslach Burnout Inventory – General Survey (MBI-GS) on a sample of 1190 Romanian healthcare professionals from three county hospitals. Data provided evi- dence to support the hypothesised three-factor model after removing one item from the cynicism scale:  2 (86) = 432.29, CFI = .94, GFI = .95, NFI = .93, and RMSEA = .05. Results of multigroup analysis confirmed the invariance of the 15 items model across professional role, gender, age, and organisational tenure. Structural equation modeling results proved specific relations between occupational factors and burnout dimensions. Our results have practical implications for future research on burnout using the MBI-GS among samples of healthcare professionals. © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier GmbH. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). 1. Introduction The use of translated instruments in different national or pro- fessional cultures in the absence of a systematic evaluation of their psychometric properties hampers cross-studies comparisons. The current research has two main objectives. First, it proposes to test the factorial validity and invariance of the Maslach Burnout Inventory – General Survey (MBI-GS) on a sample of 1190 Roma- nian healthcare professionals. We aim to test the invariance of the MBI-GS across professional role, gender, age, and organisational tenure. Second, specific relations between burnout dimensions and relevant occupational factors will be investigated by means of structural equation modeling. 1.1. Maslach Burnout Inventory The most influential burnout definition describes burnout as a three dimensional construct composed of emotional exhaustion,  This research was financially supported by the Sectoral Operational Program for Human Resources Development via the POSDRU contract 88/1.5/S/56949 – “Reform project of the doctoral studies in medical sciences: an integrative vision from finan- cing and organisation to scientific performance and impact”. ∗ Corresponding author at: Psychology Department, Babes ¸ – Bolyai University, 37 Republicii Street, 400015 Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Tel.: +40 740084303. E-mail addresses: marabria@psychology.ro, maramarinca@gmail.com (M. Bria), florinaspanu@psychology.ro (F. Spânu), adrianababan@psychology.ro (A. B˘ aban), ddumitrascu@umfcluj.ro (D.L. Dumitras ¸ cu). depersonalisation, and professional efficacy (Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001). The standard measuring instrument (Schaufeli & Buunk, 2003) is the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) which cur- rently has three distinct versions in use. Early research on burnout described it as a syndrome characterising professions that involve demanding interpersonal interactions (Maslach et al., 2001). Thus the first two forms were addressed to healthcare profession- als: Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS) (Maslach & Jackson, 1981, 1986) and teachers: Educators Survey (MBI-ES) (Maslach & Jackson, 1986). Both MBI-HSS and MBI-ES became widely used and their factorial validity has often been tested with studies offering diver- gent results. The MBI-HSS’ three-factor structure has been validated on samples of healthcare professionals (Hallberg & Sverke, 2004) and social workers (Kim & Ji, 2009). Other studies reported find- ings of a two (Kalliath, O’Driscoll, Gillespie, & Bluedorn, 2000), or a five factors structure (Densten, 2001). Moreover, empirical data suggested that the initial three-factor structure had a better fit if some of the items were excluded (Poghosyan, Aiken, & Sloane, 2009; Schaufeli & Van Dierendonck, 1993; Vanheule, Rosseel, & Vlerick, 2007) or if some items were allowed to load on different dimensions than those hypothesised in the initial model (Gorter, Albrecht, Hoogstraten, & Eijkman, 1999). The three-factor struc- ture of MBI-ES was confirmed in samples of primary (Gold, Roth, Wright, Michael, & Chin-Yi, 1992) and secondary education tea- chers (Schaufeli, Daamen, & Van Mierlo, 1994). Other studies found good fit for a two-factor model with emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation merged into one dimension (Holland, Michael, & Kim, 1994). Byrne’s studies (Byrne, 1991, 1993, 1994) confirmed the http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.burn.2014.09.001 2213-0586/© 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier GmbH. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc-nd/3.0/).