Levels of Burnout and Engagement after COVID-19 among Psychology and Nursing Students in Spain: A Cohort Study

Abstract

The COVID pandemic has 0drastically changed the functioning of universities in Spain and may have altered individuals’ behaviours and emotions, the way they engage in the learning process and their psychological well-being. Burnout syndrome is a psychological problem that arises from persistent confrontation with emotional and interpersonal stressors. COVID-related burnout among Spanish students has received little research attention. For this study, a pre-post cohort study design was used. Data were collected using the Maslach Burnout Inventory—Student Survey, the Granada Burnout Questionnaire for university students, the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and the Fear of CoronaVirus-19 scale. The population was composed of two samples of 190 and 226 students from Spanish universities. According to the results obtained, significant differences were observed between the pre- and post-test samples. Levels of burnout were higher after the COVID-19 pandemic and students’ levels of engagement have dropped significantly following their experiences of the COVID pandemic. This study shows the impact that the covid pandemic has had on Spanish university students, impacts which may have had important consequences for their mental and physical health. It is necessary to implement intervention programs to enable students to recover, at least, the levels of burnout and engagement prevailing before the outbreak of the pandemic.

Heavy study investment in Spanish college students: psychometric properties of the studyholism inventories (SI-10 and SI-15) ( Alta inversión en el estudio en estudiantes universitarios españoles: propiedades psicométricas de los inventarios de obsesión por el estudio — SI-10 y SI-15 )

“…Por lo tanto, es fundamental contar con instrumentos validados para medir la Obsesión por el Estudio en otros idiomas para llevar a cabo estudios transculturales. Por ello, el presente estudio tiene como objetivo validar las escalas de Obsesión por el Estudio en estudiantes universitarios españoles, en los que las variables relacionadas con el estudio — incluyendo el agotamiento ( burnout ) académico y la implicación con el estudio — se han estudiado cada vez más en los últimos años (por ejemplo, Capdevila-Gaudens et al, 2021; Carbonell et al, 2023; Gil-Calderón et al, 2021; Martínez-Rubio et al, 2020; Morales-Rodríguez et al, 2020; Raimundo et al, 2023; Rodríguez-González et al, 2023). Asimismo, analizar la Obsesión por el Estudio en España es de suma importancia ya que la tasa de abandono es elevada en los universitarios españoles — en los estudiantes italianos la Obsesión por el Estudio predice positivamente la tasa de abandono (evaluada más específicamente como intención de abandono; Loscalzo, 2021; Loscalzo & Giannini, 2019).…”

“…Therefore, it is critical to have validated instruments to measure Studyholism in other languages to conduct cross-cultural studies. Hence, the current study aims to validate Studyholism scales on Spanish college students, where academic-related variables — including academic burnout and study engagement — have been increasingly studied in recent years (e.g., Capdevila-Gaudens et al, 2021; Carbonell et al, 2023; Gil-Calderón et al, 2021; Martínez-Rubio et al, 2020; Morales-Rodríguez et al, 2020; Raimundo et al, 2023; Rodríguez-González et al, 2023). Also, analysing Studyholism in Spain is of foremost importance since the dropout rate — which in Italian students (more specifically evaluated as dropout intention) is positively predicted by Studyholism (Loscalzo, 2021; Loscalzo & Giannini, 2019) — is high in Spanish college students.…”

Students' core self-evaluations and academic burnout: the mediating role of personal resources

“…The transition from traditional to online teaching and then back to traditional teaching enhanced anxiety and burnout in all actors involved in the educational process (de la Fuente et al, 2021;Salmela-Aro et al, 2022;Sengupta and Blessinger, 2021). Research following the pandemic period identified high levels of burnout among students, especially exhaustion and cynicism (Aguayo-Estremera et al, 2023), highlighted by the experienced demands (e.g. workload, changes in teaching and assessment methods, lack of direct interactions with colleagues and so on).…”

“…workload, changes in teaching and assessment methods, lack of direct interactions with colleagues and so on). If these requirements were perceived as exceeding personal resources to manage them, they became a stressful factor that favored the occurrence of burnout (Aguayo-Estremera et al, 2023;Lacombe et al, 2023). Thus, overwhelmed by all these transformations, students experienced exhaustion from the new academic requirements, combined with a "cynical and detached attitude towards study" (Schaufeli et al, 2002, p. 73).…”

“…Although many studies emphasize the need to design programs to help students manage post-pandemic burnout (Aguayo-Estremera et al, 2023;Lacombe et al, 2023), very few address how personal resources (e.g. PsyCap, proactive coping) can contribute to reducing it, or how a positive evaluation of one's person (high core self-evaluations) sustains the activation of personal resources and lower burnout.…”