Intelligence as a moderator in the association between personality and burnout in a military context.
burnout, intelligence, personality, moderation, military
The burnout can be understood in three components, namely emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and low personal accomplishment. In addition, it was incorporated into the model of job resources and demands (JD-R), where the importance of personal resources in preventing and reducing burnout is highlighted. Personality factors are considered as personal resources, but little has been evidenced about how cognition can act as a personal resource and present a protective effect in the development of burnout. The aim of this study was to evaluate the interaction between personality and intelligence in predicting burnout in a sample of Brazilian military personnel. The study included 200 military personnel, mostly male and from the southeastern region of the country. From the moderation analyses, it was found that intelligence had a moderating effect both in the relationship between neuroticism and emotional exhaustion, and in the relationship between extroversion and depersonalization. So, intelligence is understood as a protective personal resource against burnout symptoms, inferring that more intelligent individuals will be better able to deal with their work demands and accumulate other resources and, thus, experience less stress and burnout.