Background: Burnout syndrome and job satisfaction are topics of increasing interest due to their relevance in people's health and well-being. Besides, they are considered very relevant in the fields of social and health care studies.
Objective: The objective of this study was to analyse the professional profile of music therapists in Spain and the prevalence of burnout syndrome and job satisfaction among them.
Methods: This was an observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study, carried out using an ad-hoc online questionnaire, the Maslach Scale and the general satisfaction scale on a sample of employed Spanish music therapists with more than two years of working experience in Spain.
Results: Eighty questionnaires were analysed. The majority of the participants were between 30-39 years old (38.8%) and were women (85%). They combined their profession with other occupations (76.3%), mostly in care roles with a fix term contract and were self-employed (40%). The prevalence of burnout syndrome was 3.8% (p < 0.001) and the predisposition or tendency to develop this condition was over 57.5% (p < 0.001). The highest levels of burnout syndrome were found in professionals with trainee contracts (p = 0.001), in those who were providing training (p = 0.021), who attended 6 to 10 patients per week (p = 0.001), who were usually working with a therapist colleague (p = 0.046) and those who did not take prescribed psychotropic drugs (p = 0.034). The highest level of job satisfaction was observed in music therapists working in the field of disability (p = 0.010) and mental health (p = 0.022) and with seniority in their job position. The lowest level of job satisfaction was seen in music therapists with trainee contracts (p = 0.041), with less working hours per week (p = 0.016), working in the field of education (p = 0.006) and in those who did not feel valued by their colleagues (p < 0.001) or by the director of the centre where they worked (p < 0.001).
Conclusions: Based on the results of this study, Spanish music therapists show a low prevalence of burnout syndrome but a moderate-high predisposition to develop it. Music therapists with burnout syndrome are those who work longer hours and perform their job in palliative care setting. In general, music therapists have a high level of both intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction. The lowest level of job satisfaction was found in music therapists with trainee contracts and the highest in music therapists with senior positions.
Keywords: burnout syndrome; job satisfaction; job stress; music therapists.