Examining the Effects of Core Self-Evaluations and Perceived Organizational Support on Academic Burnout Among Undergraduate Students

Abstract

Academic burnout is a prevalent issue that has debilitating effects on students and refers to the phenomena of long-term fatigue and loss of interest in schoolwork, and is characterized by a student's lack of engagement, dulled emotions, and feelings of helplessness. This survey-based study examined the predictive ability of two popular constructs in organizational psychology research, core self-evaluations, and perceived organizational support, to explain students' academic burnout. Extending the Job Demands-Resources model and Conservation of Resources theory to the university context, the study investigated whether core self-evaluations and perceived organizational support would similarly predict burnout for 199 undergraduate students in a university setting as they do employees in work settings. Confirmatory factor analysis was employed to assess the factor structure of the variables, and moderated multiple regression was employed to test the hypotheses. Results indicated that that core self-evaluations and perceived organizational support were individually strong predictors of burnout, and that perceived organizational support had a small moderating effect on the core self-evaluations-burnout relationship. Implications and potential applications of these results are discussed as a means to mitigate the negative effects of academic burnout experienced by so many college students.

Keywords: Academic burnout; college student wellness; core self-evaluations; perceived organizational support.