Working within health care settings often requires individuals to cope with a variety of
stressful circumstances that include life threatening injuries, trauma, and a variety of
illnesses. These situations are often complicated by work conditions such as
understaffing, tight schedules or demanding clients. Occupational stress is a major
precursor to job dissatisfaction and burnout within health and human service settings. As
such, The United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration classified stress
as a hazard in the workplace (www.osha.gov). This appears justified because
psychological stress is implicated in billions of dollars worth of losses in the public and
private sectors due to accidents, worker absenteeism, and reduced productivity.
Psychological stress is also implicated in a variety of disease processes such as coronary
heart disease (Todaro et al., 2003), cancer (Baum & Posluszny, 1999), lowered
immunological resistance to pathogens (Segerstrom & Miller, 2004), reduced quality-oflife
(Steptoe & Marmot, 2003), and increased incidence of depression and suicide
(Oquendo et al., 2004). Clearly the physical, psychological, and human costs associated
with occupational stress warrant systematic research efforts.

Within the athletic training profession concerns and recommendations about occupational
stress and burnout have been noted for nearly two decades (Campbell, Miller, &
Robinson, 1985; Hendrix, Acevedo, & Hebert, 2000). In an effort to address these
concerns, the National Athletic Training Association (NATA) has funded the current
study in order to systematically explore links between personality, occupational stress,
burnout, coping, and somatic health complaints. A stratified (e.g., gender, occupational
setting, and years of experience) nationwide sample of 1000 athletic trainers will be
randomly selected to participate in this study. All participants will complete a battery of
reliable and valid measures that will include assessments of personality (Costa &
McCrae, 1992b) burnout (Maslach & Jackson, 1986), stress (Peacock & Wong, 1990),
occupational engagement (Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004), and somatic health complaints
(Derogatis, 1994). Structural equation modeling (SEM) will be used to identify
personality characteristics that predispose individuals to experience occupational stress,
burnout, and somatic health complaints. Additionally, links between specific coping
responses burnout and occupational engagement will be evaluated. From this study,
specific psycho-educational intervention strategies will be developed in order to reduce
the impact of stress within health care and athletic training settings.