The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 1 - 41

Revisiting Resident Assistant Burnout

opmental stages, the services and resources
an RA provides also differ; perhaps there is
a higher feeling of accomplishment because
these RAs are providing more services and
resources than are those working only with a
specific population. Further exploration of the
lived experiences of RAs reporting heightened
personal accomplishment would illuminate
this hypothesis.

Employment Choice
When examining different levels of burnout,
RAs who chose to return to the RA job the
following year reported significantly higher
levels of personal accomplishment and significantly lower levels of depersonalization. This
is not unexpected, considering the rationale
for choosing to return to a particular job. Why
would an employee continue with a job when
there is a limited sense of accomplishment?
The same question manifests about depersonalization: If RAs distance themselves from
residents, which directly contradicts their job
expectation to develop students (Denzine &
Anderson, 1999), should practitioners expect
them to return? Studies in other disciplines
support the finding that burnout leads to more
decisions to leave the RA position (Demerouti,
Bakker, Vardakou, & Kantas, 2003; Laschinger
et al., 2009).
The lack of significant differences in emotional exhaustion scores between opposing
employment choice groups was at first unexpected. The assumption was that, all other
considerations being equal, people would elect
to leave a position if they felt emotionally exhausted. However, this does not seem true
among RAs. One possible explanation for this
finding is that the other dimensions of burnout
are more impactful when choosing to leave the

position at the end of the academic year. Similarly, perhaps the associated "feelings of being
emotionally overextended and exhausted by
[their] work" (Maslach & Jackson, 1981, p. 101)
and being "depleted of [their] emotional and
physical resources" (Maslach et al., 2001, p.
399) may be tied to the mentality and disposition of those who choose to be RAs in the first
place. The ramifications of this suggestion are
concerning, should this conclusion be correct.
If students in the RA position are predisposed
to having higher levels of emotional exhaustion, then there is a cultural problem within
the RA position beginning on the first day of
employment, which warrants further attention
by practitioners and additional exploration by
researchers.
Another consideration is that RAs may be
willing to continue to work in an emotionally
exhausting job in order to continue to receive
the benefits of the position. The typical RA remuneration package includes housing (often
at no cost, but sometimes discounted), a meal
plan, and a monetary stipend (Horvath &
Stack, 2013). Perhaps thinking of an alternative
plan to pay for food and housing and working
another job while continuing to pursue their
academic endeavors is more exhausting than
the position itself (at least at the time of reapplication). This observation becomes increasingly
relevant when considering the negative effects
of accumulating student loan debt on student
mental health (Walsemann, Gee, & Gentile,
2015). Additional research investigating the
relationships between student motivation to
become an RA because of financial obligations
(see Resident Assistant Motivation Questionnaire
in Deluga & Winters, 1991), RA compensation
packages, and student debt levels may further

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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 1

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