A path analysis model of burn out is proposed and applied to data from survey with the staff of institutions for mentally retarded people. The subjects of the survey were 596 staff who were directly responsible for the care of mentally retarded people at 32 institutions (both inpatient and outpatient institutions) for the mentally retarded in Hokkaido which had been in operation for more than 3 years. The items surveyed were general attributes of the subjects (sex, age, martial status), working conditions (number of days on duty per month, number of general and special bathing duties per week), burn out, coping, and stress. The results of analysis were as follows: 1) The age of the subject which is both a general attribute as well as a stressor, the number of days on duty per month, and the number of special bathing duties per week affected the positive and negative stress which are secondary factors, 2) The secondary factors determined the ways of coping in terms of problem solving, emotional adjustment and avoidance (problem-forcused forms of coping, emotional-forcused forms of coping, avoidance coping), 3) These ways of coping determined burn out, and 4) Positive and negative stress, which are secondary factors, strongly determined burn out. The importance of investigating direct and indirect effects of variables via path analysis is discussed.
