Mental health of entrepreneurs and daily recovery experiences

We analyze the relationships between daily recovery experiences after work (detachment, relaxation, mastery and control) and mental health (well-being and burnout) based on four surveys among French entrepreneurs (small business owners). First, comparing our results with those of previous studies on employees’ recovery experiences, we find that French entrepreneurs have fewer recovery experiences for all four dimensions. Second, we find that experiences of detachment after work have the lowest scores among daily recovery experiences for French entrepreneurs. Third, using many controls, both linear regressions and SEM analysis show that the quality of overall daily recovery experiences increases well-being and reduces burnout. Fourth, we show that the detachment component is not correlated with well-being, and the mastery component is not correlated with burnout. Relaxation and control are most strongly associated with well-being, whereas control has the strongest association with burnout. Many implications (including clinical) are discussed.