Does School Matter?

Abstract

School burnout can be defined as consisting of exhaustion due to school demands, cynical, and detached attitude toward one’s school, and feelings of inadequacy as a student ( Kiuru, Aunola, Nurmi, Leskinen, & Salmela-Aro, 2008 ; Salmela-Aro & Näätänen, 2005 ; Schaufeli, Martínez, Pinto, Salanova, & Bakker, 2002 ). The first aim of the present study was to examine the extent to which schools differ in school-related burnout. Moreover, the aim was to examine the extent to which school-related and background factors are associated with school burnout at the school level and at the individual level. The participants were 58,657 students from 431 comprehensive schools and 29,515 students from 228 upper secondary schools who filled in a questionnaire measuring their school burnout, school-related variables (i.e., negative school climate, positive motivation received from teachers, support from the school), and background variables (i.e., gender, grade-point average, socio-economic status, and family structure). The results revealed only small differences between schools in school burnout. Among the comprehensive school students the results at the school-level showed that negative school climate typical of the school was positively related, while support from school shared among school members was negatively related to school-related burnout. Among upper secondary school students, in turn, positive motivation received from teachers typical of the school was negatively related to school-related burnout. At the individual level, negative school climate was positively related, and support from school and positive motivation received from teachers were negatively related to burnout among both the comprehensive and upper secondary school students. In addition, girls and those with lower GPA experienced higher levels of school burnout compared to boys and those with higher GPA.

University student’s engagement: development of the University Student Engagement Inventory (USEI)

“…Chen & Astor 2011;Finn & Zimmer 2012;Kuh 2009;Salmela-Aro et al 2008). In studies with University students, engagement has been measured primarily with the UWES-SS in Europe and the BCSSE in the USA.…”

Happiness Decreases during Early Adolescence—A Study on 12- and 15-Year-Old Finnish Students

“…A great deal of research shows higher rates of psychosomatic disorders, emotional disturbances, depression, and anxiety among adolescent girls as compared to boys (e.g., Angold, Costello, Erkali, & Worthman, 1999;Nolen-Hoeksema, 1994;Rask, Åstedt-Kurki, Paavilainen, & Laippala, 2003). According to the report of European Commission (2000) and recent national studies (Karvonen, Vikat, & Rimpelä, 2005;Salmela-Aro, Kiuru, Pietikäinen, & Jokela, 2008; Terveyden ja hyvinvoinnin laitos, 2012), health-related complaints increase especially among girls during adolescence, and there is a "shift in gender-related health status between childhood and adolescence". Boys are more likely than girls to have health problems up to puberty but the trend is reversed in adolescence (European Commission, 2000: p. 17).…”

“…Boys are more likely than girls to have health problems up to puberty but the trend is reversed in adolescence (European Commission, 2000: p. 17). The reasons may lie in the girls' physically more drastic puberty changes, greater social demands, controversial role expectations, and more frequent school-related burnout (Angold et al, 1999;Bisegger et al, 2005;Kaltiala-Heino, Marttunen, Rantanen, & Rimpelä, 2003;Salmela-Aro et al, 2008).…”

Passion and motivation for studying: predicting academic engagement and burnout in university students

“…However, with such measures now available, it is becoming clear that undergraduate university students experience substantial levels of burnout (Jacobs & Dodd, 2003). Moreover, studies investigating burnout in university students confirm that academic burnout is a significant problem associated with poor academic performance (Schaufeli, Martínez, et al, 2002), low self-efficacy (Yang & Farn, 2005), negative perceptions of the learning environment and available support (Salmela-Aro, Kiuru, Pietikäinen, & Jokela, 2008;Yang & Farn, 2005), high levels of perceived workload (Jacobs & Dodd, 2003), concern over mistakes and doubts about action (Zhang et al, 2006), and low coping effectiveness (Gan, Shang, & Zhang, To our knowledge, no study so far has investigated the relationships between harmonious and obsessive passion for studying and the different aspects of academic engagement posited by Schaufeli and colleagues. Moreover, no study has investigated the relationships between the two forms of passion for studying and academic burnout.…”