Background: The previous studies have examined whether personality or coping style could be a predictor of job burnout. However, there are few studies revealed how personality or coping style influences on the developing of job burnout, especially in the sample of Chinese employees. The objective of this study is to investigate the role of coping style as a mediator between personality and job burnout in Chinese employees.

Methods: There were 217 out of 235 employees completed questionnaires of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire (SCSQ) and the Chinese version of Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (MBI-GS). Path analysis was used to analyze the relationship among personality, coping style and job burnout.

Results: Path analysis revealed extroversion could affect reduced professional efficacy via optimistic coping, and the mediating effect of optimistic coping was 0.06; neuroticism could influence all dimensions of burnout through pessimistic coping, and the mediating effect of pessimistic coping on emotional exhaustion, cynicism and reduced professional efficacy was 0.06, 0.08 and 0.05, respectively. In addition, the result showed that emotional exhaustion and cynicism interact on each other. The direct effect of emotional exhaustion on cynicism was 0.31; conversely, the direct effect of cynicism on exhaustion was 0.29. The model fitted the data well (=26.25, P=0.01, GFI=0.97, AGFI=0.92, NFI=0.94, CFI=0.96, RMSEA=0.07 (90% CI 0.035-0.113), P close fit =0.14).

Conclusions: Coping style might be one of mediators between personality and job burnout for Chinese employees.