Burnout scolaire et soutien social : l’importance du soutien des parents et des enseignants

Abstract

Several authors emphasized the importance of considering social support within a dimensional perspective and have shown the protective role of different sources of support against school adaptation difficulties in adolescence. The aim of this study is to identify sources of support associated with school burnout, which was recently described, as a syndrome of exhaustion due to school demands, cynical and detached attitudes toward school and feelings of inadequacy as a student. A total of 441 adolescents were recruited in two mainstream middle schools from the French part of Switzerland. They were asked to answer a questionnaire including a French version of the Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale (CASSS-f) and a previously validated French version of the School Burnout Inventory. Preliminary analyses were conducted to test the psychometric properties of the CASSS-f. Results of confirmatory factor analysis showed that the CASSS-f has the same structure than its original version and thus, allows estimating social support from several sources (i.e. parent, teacher, classmates, close friend and school). Moreover, most of the CASSS-f subscales showed satisfactory internal consistency coefficients. Main analyses consisted of correlational and regression analysis. Results showed that parent support, teacher support and school support are negatively associated to school burnout, with weak to moderate correlations. Results also showed that parent support is a negative predictor of school burnout after controlling for background variables. These results are discussed along with the implications for future research and for prevention of school burnout.