Work-related psychological wellbeing of Catholic priests in Portugal: cross-cultural adaptation of the Francis Burnout inventory

The present study was designed to translate the Francis Burnout Inventory Revised into Portuguese and to test this translation among a snowball sample of 266 Catholic priests serving in Portugal (91% diocesan). The data demonstrated: good internal consistency reliability for the two scales proposed by this instrument (negative affect, α = .89 and positive affect, α = .89); support for the association with a measure of self-compassion; and support for the theory of balanced affect against a measure of thoughts of leaving ministry. The priests were found to display a high level of positive affect that masked a degree of negative affect, with a third of them reporting that fatigue and irritation were part of their daily experience.