Co-Rumination Partially Mediates the Relationship Between Social Support and Emotional Exhaustion Among Graduate Students

Abstract

Graduate students regularly report high levels of stress and burnout. Many of those same students utilize social support networks, which can act as stress buffers. This study evaluated excessive negative talk about issues (co-rumination) and its effects on that social-support to burnout (emotional exhaustion) relationship and predicted that co-rumination would act as a suppressor variable. Graduate student volunteers (N = 213) reported their levels of social support, co-rumination, and emotional exhaustion. Data indicated that co-rumination did mediate the social support-to-emotional exhaustion relationship on two dimensions. This project purports that, while social support is important, the content of socially-supportive interactions may also be important when attempting to intervene in stressful situations, especially when those interactions involve co-ruminative messages.

Protective Factors as Predictors of Suicide Risk Among Graduate Students

“…Graduate students have reported their experiences in graduate school to be stressful among a variety of academic programs (Heins, Fahey, & Leiden, 1984;Lundberg, McIntire, & Creasman, 2008). Research has shown that graduate students regularly report high levels of stress and burnout, including time strain, fear of failure, demanding job requirements, and financial strain (Boren, 2013). In a study by Hyun, Quinn, Madon, and Lustig (2006), 44.7% of the graduate student respondents reported having an emotional or stress-related problem in the past year and 57.7% reported having a peer (in graduate school) with an emotional or stress-related problem in the last 12 months, suggesting a need for mental health services.…”

Co-Rumination of Fat Talk and Weight Control Practices: An Application of Confirmation Theory

“…Thus, friends' supportive responses (i.e., acceptance) and influence techniques (i.e., challenge; Lewis & Butterfield, 2007;Markey, Markey, & Gray, 2007) may facilitate others thinking differently about themselves and their behaviors. That said, social support and influence are not always related to positive and healthy outcomes, particularly in the context of co-rumination (Boren, 2013). Boren (2013) found that individuals who engage in coruminative interactions may reduce the positive benefits of social support because they experience the expressed emotion of others in co-rumination via emotional contagion.…”

“…That said, social support and influence are not always related to positive and healthy outcomes, particularly in the context of co-rumination (Boren, 2013). Boren (2013) found that individuals who engage in coruminative interactions may reduce the positive benefits of social support because they experience the expressed emotion of others in co-rumination via emotional contagion.…”

Communicatively Restricted Organizational Stress (CROS) I

“…Individually, corumination has been associated with increasing levels of stress hormones (Byrd-Craven, Granger, & Auer, 2011) and has been seen to reduce some of the positive psychological benefits of social support (Boren, 2013). Unfortunately, people are rarely consciously aware that they are engaging in co-rumination and even co-ruminative exchanges are perceived as socially supportive (Boren, 2013(Boren, , 2014Rose, 2002). However, in a study of 447 working adults, Boren (2014) found that co-rumination suppressed the positive benefits of perceived social support on both burnout and stress.…”