Developmental trajectories of school burnout: Evidence from two longitudinal studies

Abstract

To examine school burnout trajectories, in Study 1, 15-year-old adolescents (N=614) completed the School Burnout Inventory twice during their final term of comprehensive school and twice after the transition to upper secondary high school or vocational school. In Study 2, school burnout in 17-year-old adolescents was measured twice annually (N=575) during their upper secondary education. In Study 1, growth mixture modeling for school burnout yielded a four-latent-group solution: 60% of the adolescents showed a low and stable level of school burnout, 29% increasing burnout, 3% strongly increasing burnout and 8% high-decreasing school burnout. In Study 2, we identified two latent groups of school burnout: 94% moderate and slightly decreasing, and 6% high-increasing. In support of the demands–resources model during the educational transition, more changes were observed in the trajectories of school burnout, while during the stable post-transitional period, the trajectories of school burnout were mostly stable.