Burnout among Finnish and Chinese university students

Abstract

In this study the levels of experienced burnout of Finnish and Chinese university students are compared using School Burnout Inventory (SBI). This study is motivated by earlier studies, which suggest that the level of student burnout is different in the culturally distinct Finnish and Chinese university systems, but which are based on different research instruments for the two groups. The sample studied consisted of 3,035 Finnish students and 2,309 Chinese students. Because of the cross-cultural nature of this study the level of structural equivalence of SBI between the cultural groups was examined and the effect of different response styles on the results was taken into account. Both standard and robust statistical methods were used for the analyses. The results showed that SBI with two extracted components is suitable for cross-cultural analysis between Finnish and Chinese university students. Virtually no difference was found in experienced overall burnout between the Finnish and Chinese students, which means that both university systems contain factors causing similar levels of student burnout. This study also verified that controlling for the response styles is important in cross-cultural studies as it was found to have a distinct effect on the results obtained from mean-level comparisons.

School Burnout Syndrome in the Students of Helping Professions and its Possible Predictors

“…Th e results of our research show that the majority of students (65.4%) have an average degree of burnout, nearly 17% of the students have a low degree of school burnout, and 17.7% of the students have a high degree of school burnout. In comparison, the research results presented by other authors show that in a set of 545 respondents (students of medicine in the United States), 45% of the students suff er from burnout (Dyrbye et al, 2006), Samela-Aro, Hernesniemi et al (2017) found that 33% of the students are at risk of burnout among Finnish university students (2427 respondents), and Kuittinen Meriläinen (2011) identifi ed the burnout risk in 45% of Finnish students (set of 3 031 respondents).…”

“…Based on the above, the authors made a questionnaire with three subscales focusing on the individual aspects of the burnout syndrome, and highlighted the correlation between the burnout syndrome and physical exhaustion, insomnia, alcohol and drug use and various kinds of relationship problems (Maslach, Jackson, 1981). Although the beginnings of the burnout syndrome analysis are associated mainly with the performance of helping professions, it can also be noticed in the performance of other social roles, for example, it can be connected with college study (Shin, 2011, Dyrbye et al, 2009Hernesniemi et al, 2017;Kuittinen a Meriläinen, 2011;Zarobkiewicz, et al, 2018, Nikodijević, Labrović, Doković, 2012Stein, Sibanda, 2016;Ried, et al 2006, Merino-Tejedor. et al, 2015, Aghajari et al, 2018.…”

Students’ achievement motivation in Finnish and Chinese higher education and its relation to perceived teaching‐learning environments

“… Note : The response style measures were calculated for the Finnish and Chinese students separately using the unrecoded responses to all items of the questionnaire (82 items: 68 (72) positively worded and 14 (10) negatively worded items in the Finnish (Chinese) version). Adapted from Reynolds and Smith (), also in Hernesniemi, Räty, Kasanen, Cheng, Hong & Kuittinen, , . …”

“…r i 2 Þ where, C = the number of categories in the scale; r i = the ratio of responses that fall into the i:th category Note: The response style measures were calculated for the Finnish and Chinese students separately using the unrecoded responses to all items of the questionnaire (82 items: 68 (72) positively worded and 14 (10) negatively worded items in the Finnish (Chinese) version). Adapted from Reynolds and Smith (2010), also in Hernesniemi, R€ aty, Kasanen, Cheng, Hong & Kuittinen, 2017a, 2017b to the right of the center (ξ = 0.78). Hence, the independence-ofthe-covariate-and-treatment-effect -assumption is not met in this study.…”

Burnout among university students during distance learning period due to the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross sectional study at the University of Jordan

“…Studies that investigated burnout among university students showed that exhaustion was the most important and sometimes the only dimension of burnout. Despite the variability across different educational systems, the levels of burnout remained comparable, suggesting shared core principles that lead to increased levels of burnout 4 . Similar characteristics were found to contribute to burnout in both university students and employees as in both of them, burnout is attributed to variables related to socio-professional causes and background 2 .…”