Marital status differences in the association of work motivation with burnout: a network perspective

To date, there has been no agreement on the conclusions regarding the differences in burnout between married and unmarried groups. Based on the job demands-resources model and the self-determination theory, work motivation may be a significant influencing factor. This study aimed to examine whether work motivation differed significantly between unmarried and married groups and used network analysis to test the marital status difference in the association of work motivation with burnout. The participants were 5,025 Chinese manufacturing employees (2556 married, 2469 unmarried). We used the Network Comparison Test to compare the connection between work motivation and burnout in married and unmarried networks on three aspects: global strength, network structure, and specific edge strength. The results showed that the married scored significantly higher in work motivation (p < 0.001) and lower in burnout (p < 0.01). There were no marital status differences in global strength (S = 0.019, p = 0.931). However, the network structure (M = 0.158, p = 0.01) differed between two networks. Specifically, the analysis of specific edge strength indicated that the negative association of work motivation with burnout was more pronounced in the married network. Notably, the fact that 98% of our study participants were male may limit the results' application to female. Hence, these results demonstrated that at least for male workers, work motivation may contribute to the difference in burnout between unmarried and married groups, and being married and work motivation may be considered protective factors against burnout. Further studies should investigate whether the findings also translate to the female samples.