Academic Burnout of Polish Students: A Latent Profile Analysis

Abstract

According to Maslach and Leiter, burnout syndrome consists of three elements: exhaustion, cynicism, and a sense of ineffectiveness experienced by individuals in the work environment. However, burnout does not only apply to professional activity but can also be experienced by students pursuing higher education. This is important because the consequences of student burnout can be related to students’ mental and physical health. Until recently, the dominant diagnostic trend in the studies of burnout syndrome was based on a variable-focused approach. This approach focuses primarily on identifying subgroups in the population and presents different configurations of the various dimensions of burnout. However, there is emerging research using a person-centered approach and including the analysis of latent profiles to study professional and student burnout. This approach allows us to isolate subgroups of individuals in the study sample who have a similar burnout pattern. It focuses on the differences between individuals, which helps us to look at the phenomenon of professional burnout from a different perspective and shows the individuality of its experience. Our research aimed at identifying latent profiles, was conducted on a sample of 1519 Polish students, and partly confirms reports from other countries. We identified four profiles: low burnout, moderate below-average burnout, moderate above-average burnout, and very high burnout groups.

Burnout and Its Relationship with Work Engagement in Healthcare Professionals: A Latent Profile Analysis Approach

“…These data are consistent with previous studies (e.g., [118]) and imply the need to design and implement preventive and intervention actions that can help alleviate this condition among healthcare professionals. In addition, the higher percentage of female participants is consistent with the feminization that has been reported for both careers in the healthcare area and its professionals [75]. This is relevant because it is the female population who is exposed to a greater number of conflicts between their professional life and their family life, which affect their mental health [118].…”

“…In addition, they were informed about the anonymity and confidentiality of their responses. At the end of the cover letter, a signature (medical staff) or checkbox with the phrase "I agree to participate in this study" (nursing staff) was requested from those who agreed to complete the instruments, which were then presented (c.f., [75]). A refusal to participate was not penalized in any way, and in this case, the return of the printed questionnaire was requested or they were asked to close the window in which the online version was presented.…”

“…Finally, a very recent study carried out with Polish students detected four profiles: low burnout (with low scores on the exhaustion and cynicism scales and moderate scores on the inefficacy scale), moderate but below average burnout (with low to moderate scores on the exhaustion and cynicism scales and moderate scores on the inefficacy scale), moderate but above average burnout (with moderate scores on all three scales) and burnout at high levels (with high or very high scores on the exhaustion and cynicism scales and moderate scores on the inefficacy scale) [75].…”

Burnout and its Relationship with Work Engagement in Healthcare Professionals: A Latent Profile Analysis Approach

“…Finally, a very recent study carried out with Polish students detected 4 profiles: low burnout (with low scores on the exhaustion and cynicism scales and moderate scores on the inefficacy scale), moderate burnout below average (with low to moderate scores on the exhaustion and cynicism scales and moderate scores on the inefficacy scale), moderate burnout above average (with moderate scores on all three scales) and very high burnout (with high or very high scores on the exhaustion and cynicism scales and moderate scores on the inefficacy scale) [75].…”

Tecnoestrés en el desgaste académico de estudiantes universitarios del Perú

“…A partir de lo descrito, se precisa intervenciones psicoeducativas (IP) con temáticas que difundan la autocompasión, resiliencia y la satisfacción por los objetivos de vida conseguidos (Charbonnier et al, 2023;Shin et al, 2023;Tran et al, 2023) procurando la revalorización del bienestar general de las personas como entidades únicas e importantes (Chirkowska-Smolak et al, 2023;Andrade et al, 2023).…”