Unveiling Chinese EFL students’ academic burnout and its prediction by anxiety, boredom, and hopelessness: a latent growth curve modeling

Abstract

ABSTRACT Due to the undesirable influences of academic burnout on students’ overall well-being, multitudes of studies have examined this psychological distress and its potential antecedents. Nevertheless, earlier studies have predominantly employed a linear, monolithic research method to probe students’ academic burnout. Moreover, the majority of existing studies have exclusively concentrated on the external predictors of this phenomenon. To address these gaps, adopting the ‘latent growth curve modeling (LGCM)’ as a dynamic research approach, the current inquiry examined Chinese EFL students’ academic burnout and its potential variations over a course of a semester. With this approach, this inquiry assessed the role of boredom, hopelessness, and anxiety as internal predictors of students’ academic burnout. For this purpose, 621 EFL students were randomly chosen from two Chinese universities and four self-scoring questionnaires were given to participants at the onset, middle, and conclusion of the semester. The outcomes of the LGCM disclosed that the rate of students’ academic burnout reduced throughout the semester. The findings further revealed that students’ unpleasant feelings, boredom, hopelessness, and anxiety, positively predicted their academic burnout. Overall, the results of this longitudinal research would be invaluable for language teachers seeking to reduce academic burnout among their learners.