The Relationship Between Social Support And Levels Of Occupational Stress And Burnout Among Members Of Kenya Union Of Journalists Nairobi

The main objective of this study was to examine the prevalence and levels of occupational stress and burnout and establish whether these two are influenced by social support among the members of the Kenya Union of Journalists in Nairobi, Kenya. The study adopted a correlational research design and targeted an estimated population of 480 journalists who were active members of the Kenya Union of Journalists and working within Nairobi County, Kenya. The probability sampling design involving systematic, random selection of the study journalists from the Kenya Union of Journalists‘ members was used to select a sample of 214 study participants. Sample estimation was based on the Krejcie and Morgan‘s table of sample size determination and yielded a sample size of 214 at 95% level of confidence and 5% marginal error. A structured questionnaire comprising standardized psychological measurement scales for occupational stress, burnout and social support was used to collect primary data. The quantitative data collected was analyzed both descriptively and inferentially, with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences. The study findings revealed high rates of prevalence as well as relatively higher level of occupational stress among journalists in Kenya as the Weisman‘s Occupational Stress Scale scores computed to a mean score of 44.71 per survey participant and an average individual score of 2.98 on the five-point Likert-like scale therefore, providing strong evidence of the existence of occupational stress among the KUJ members. The findings also established that overall, the average level of burnout was 2.99 with BBI-9 revealing higher scores on the dimension of Exhaustion (3.27) compared to Sense of Inadequacy (2.99) and Cynicism (2.72). The study showed a significant negative relationship between social support and both occupational stress and burnout ((r = -0.28; p