Moving away from exhaustion: how core self-evaluations influence academic burnout.

Penghu Lian,Hanzhong Li,Hanzhong Li,Yunfeng Sun,Jiaxi Peng,Zhigang Ji,Zhigang Ji,Kevin Paterson

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0087152

Abstract

BackgroundAcademic burnout refers to students who have low interest, lack of motivation, and tiredness in studying. Studies concerning how to prevent academic burnout are rare.ObjectiveThe present study aimed to investigate the impact of core self-evaluations on the academic burnout of university students, and mainly focused on the confirmation of the mediator role of life satisfaction.MethodsA total of 470 university students accomplished the core self-evaluation scale, Satisfaction with Life, and academic burnout scale.ResultsBoth core self-evaluations and life satisfaction were significantly correlated with academic burnout. Structural equation modeling indicated that life satisfaction partially mediated the relationship between core self-evaluations and academic burnout.ConclusionsCore self-evaluations significantly influence academic burnout and are partially mediated by life satisfaction.

Highlights

Given the development and application of positive psychology in management and organization, the phenomenon of job burnout is receiving much attention
All the factor loadings for the indicators of the latent variables were significant (P,0.001), which indicated that the latent construct was well represented
Core self-evaluations (CSE), life satisfaction, and academic burnout were significantly correlated with each other

Summary

Introduction

Given the development and application of positive psychology in management and organization, the phenomenon of job burnout is receiving much attention. In 1980, Pine and Kafry found that university students experienced job burnout to a higher degree than service workers [3]. This finding led to the concept of academic burnout in which students have no interest in studying, lack motivation, and are tired of studying [4,5,6]. The external environment and individual factors are the main causes of academic burnout [5]. Studies on the factors that cause academic burnout of students, especially internal factors, are rather rare. Academic burnout refers to students who have low interest, lack of motivation, and tiredness in studying.

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Results

Conclusion