Effects of academic burnout on study engagement as moderated by resilience and social support: a longitudinal study

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the correlations between academic burnout, study engagement, resilience, and social support in the Thai education context. The study also aimed to investigate the effect of academic burnout on study engagement, moderated by resilience and social support after the transition from online learning to on-site learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, the study aimed to explore the effects of different types of social support on academic burnout, study engagement, and resilience.

The current study included two data gathering occasions for hypothesis testing. The participants were undergraduate students aged between 18 to 25 years old, those of which studied at educational institutions located in Bangkok, Thailand. The first data collection had 70 participants, whereas the second data collection included 63 participants. In addition, Pearson's correlation analysis and linear regression analysis were used in this study to investigate the hypotheses.

The analysis of the initial data collection revealed a negative correlation between academic burnout and study engagement (r = -.374, p = .001), as well as between academic burnout and social support (r = -.247, p = .039). On the other hand, study engagement showed a positive association with resilience (r = .367, p= .002). Resilience was found to be positively correlated with social support (r = .600, p < .001). However, no significant relationship was found between academic burnout and resilience (r = -.103, p = .397), as well as between study engagement and social support (r = .147, p = .223). Furthermore, the results indicated that there is no evidence for the moderating role of resilience (b = 0.00, SE = 0.003, 95% CI [-0.005, 0.005], ß = 0.001, p = .990) and social support (b = -0.001, SE = 0.003, 95% CI [-0.008, 0.005], ß = -0.052, p = .637) in the effect of academic burnout on study engagement.

The analysis of the dual data collections demonstrated that academic burnout at Time 1 could predict subsequent study engagement, with the moderation of social support at Time 1 (b = -0.008, SE = 0.003, 95% CI [-0.014, -0.003], ß = -0.290, p = .005). However, when resilience at Time 1 acts as a moderator, academic burnout at Time 1 does not predict later study engagement (b = -0.004, SE = 0.003, 95% CI [-0.009, 0.001], ß = -0.142, p = .106).

In addition, the findings indicated that support from teachers had an impact on academic burnout (ß = -0.459, p < .001), study engagement (ß = 0.390, p = .006), and resilience (ß = 0.303, p = .009). While support from families was found to influence academic burnout (ß = -0.374, p = .003) and resilience (ß = 0.501, p < .001) among students. Furthermore, peer support had an effect on academic burnout (ß = 0.261, p = .044) as well.

The researcher anticipated that the current findings would be one of the parts that facilitate stakeholders who are involved with students' well-being to be aware of and understand the factors and states that are important to students' learning. Furthermore, the findings might be used as part of the initial process to construct or modify the course design in the future to promote students' well-being.