Validity and Reliability of the Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT) in Serbian

TL;DR

This study tested the Serbian version of the Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT) among medical students and found it to be reliable and valid for measuring burnout.

Contribution

The study provides validation of the Serbian version of BAT for use in assessing burnout in medical students.

Findings

The Serbian BAT showed high reliability with Cronbach’s alpha values above 0.8 for most scales.

Exploratory factor analysis confirmed the factorial validity of the Serbian BAT.

The tool demonstrated strong convergent and discriminative performance.

Abstract

Background: Burnout is a syndrome resulting from long-term, unmanaged work-related stress. This study aimed to evaluate the validity and reliability of the Serbian versions of BAT among fifth-year medical students at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Medicine. Methods: This cross-sectional study, which included a total of 431 students at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, was conducted during the last week of November 2024. The study instruments used were the Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT) and the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI). Results: Cronbach’s alpha for the entire BAT scale was α = 0.946; for core burnout symptoms, it was α = 0.938; for the exhaustion scale, α = 0.865; for mental distance, α = 0.858; for cognitive impairment, α = 0.907; for emotional impairment, α = 0.878; for secondary symptoms, α = 0.863; for psychological distress, α = 0.791; and for psychosomatic complaints, α = 0.801. The EFA showed six factors that explained a total of 63.76% of the variance. Factor 1 explained 35.71% of the variance; factor 2 explained 9.81%; factor 3, 5.785%; factor 4, 5.415%; factor 5, 3.956%; and factor 6 explained 3.076% of the variance. After the elimination of the three items with the lowest loadings, the EFA showed five factors that explained a total of 63.347% of the total variance. Factor 1 explained a total of 36.637% of the variance; factor 2, 10.544%; factor 3, 6.345%; factor 4, 5.612%; and factor 5 explained a total of 4.209%. Conclusions: This study showed that the Serbian version of the BAT exhibits excellent reliability, clear factorial validity, and strong convergent and discriminative performance.

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