Immigrant status, gender, and school burnout in Finnish lower secondary school students

Abstract

The aim of this longitudinal study among 9,223 students from 7 th to 9 th grade (age 13-16) was to assess whether immigration status and gender are associated with the level and change (slope) in school burnout among lower secondary school students in the Helsinki metropolitan area. 97% of the variation in school burnout was attributable to individual factors. Both the intercept (2.3, p < 0.001) and slope (0.5, p < 0.001) of school burnout were statistically significant. The slope showed increasing school burnout from grades 7 to 9. School burnout increased more in girls than in boys. Initially apparent higher school burnout among students who had immigrated to Finland within the last five years compared to Finnish native students was largely accounted for by sociodemographic and school-related factors. However, there was a persistent gender by immigration status difference in the fully adjusted model: recently (<5 years ago) immigrated boys experienced a larger increase in school burnout, especially due to increased cynicism, than recently immigrated girls.researchers have yet to investigate whether school burnout is a process that unfolds over the course of the lower secondary school years and what role immigrant status and gender play in burnout. In this longitudinal study, we evaluated school burnout among students in all the lower secondary schools in the Helsinki Metropolitan area. We aimed to: (a) identify trajectories of school burnout from the 7 th to 9 th grade during lower secondary school, (b) examine both the role of immigrant status, gender and their interaction and (c) the role of key school-related variables (students speaking a foreign language, school type, percentage of students with special needs, positive motivation from teachers and classroom atmosphere) in school burnout. We hoped to shed light on whether trajectories of school burnout differ by immigrant status, gender and educational context, or whether they might be a developmentally normative response to the norms, structures, values, and goals common to formal education settings. Most importantly, we wanted to clarify the extent to which school burnout is predicted by different types of individual and school-related variables among native and immigrant lower secondary school students.

Associations Between Academic Burnout And Social-Cognitive Factors: Does General Cognitive Ability Matter?

“…From this viewpoint, academic buoyancy and adaptive emotion regulation strategies have an analogous interaction effect on students with higher general cognitive ability. Previous studies have also reported that successful students can be more prone to academic burnout while reporting more depressive symptoms and higher level of stress, and/or higher performance orientation (Salmela-Aro et al, 2018;Tuominen-Soini & Salmela-Aro, 2014;Tuominen-Soini, Salmela-Aro, & Niemivirta, 2008) or lower academic buoyancy (Vinter et al, 2019). This pattern refers to the possible problem quite many Estonian middle school students may have: although they have shown excellent results in PISA studies (OECD, 2016), they may be more prone to academic burnout under pressure to achieve academically, especially when they have low social-emotional skills.…”

“…Associations between academic burnout and general cognitive ability have not been researched a lot but it has been shown that academic burnout is related to lower level of academic achievement (May, Bauer, & Fincham, 2015;Salmela-Aro et al, 2008;Salmela-Aro, Read, Minkkinen, Kinnunen, & Rimpela, 2018;Tuominen-Soini & Salmela-Aro, 2014) and diminished attention and problem solving skills (May et al, 2015). However, the associations between academic burnout and academic achievement (as well as general cognitive ability) are not consistent in every study.…”

“…However, the associations between academic burnout and academic achievement (as well as general cognitive ability) are not consistent in every study. Many studies have found a negative significant association between Grade Point Average (GPA) and academic burnout (May et al, 2015;Salmela-Aro et al, 2018). On the contrary, the study conducted among Estonian middle school students (Vinter et al, 2019) reported no significant direct associations between academic burnout and math skills as well as general cognitive ability.…”

Investigation of Students Trust Levels to Teachers, School Burnout and Academic Achievement with Structural Equation Modeling

“…It can be claimed that the burnout of students may have some negative consequences such as getting tired of school activities quickly, developing negative attitudes towards school and school activities, emergence of a feeling of insufficiency, cynicism, low motivation, decrease in self-control, depression, low participation and success (Aypay, 2018b;Cooper, Seibert, May, Fitzgerald & Fincham, 2017;Fiorilli, De Stasio, Di Chiacchio, Pepe & Salmela-Aro,2017;Lee, Puig, Kim, Shin, Lee and Lee, 2010;Salmela-Aro, Read, Minkkinen, Kinnunen & Rimpelä, 2018).…”

“…Students' academic achievement is influenced by many variables. Students' school burnout (Atik, 2016;Demir and Gencdogan, 2017;Galbraith and Merrill, 2014;Kutsal and Bilge, 2012;Lin and Huang, 2013;Salmela-Aro, Kiuru, Pietikäinen and Jokela, 2008;Salmela-Aro, Read, Minkkinen, Kinnunen and Rimpelä, 2018) and their trust in their teachers (Adams, 2013;Bryk and Schneider, 2002;Dewulf, van Braak and Van Houtte, 2017;Goddard, Salloum andBerebitsky, 2009 Hoy andTschannen-Moran, 2007;McKinney and Berube, 2018) have been identified as important factors in their success.…”