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. 2024 Jul 24:12:1441465.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1441465. eCollection 2024.

The association between intolerance of uncertainty and academic burnout among university students: the role of self-regulatory fatigue and self-compassion

Jingyu Qiang  1 , Xiaowen He  2 , Zheng Xia  2 , Jing Huang  3 , Cheng Xu  2
Affiliations

The association between intolerance of uncertainty and academic burnout among university students: the role of self-regulatory fatigue and self-compassion

Jingyu Qiang et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Introduction: Increased uncertainty is a major feature of the current society that poses significant challenges to university students' mental health and academics. However, current research has not paid sufficient attention to this issue, and no study has explored the underlying mechanisms between intolerance of uncertainty and academic burnout among university students.

Methods: This study examined the association between uncertainty intolerance and academic burnout among university students and the role of self-regulatory fatigue and self-compassion in light of the theory of limited resources. Convenience sampling was used to survey 1,022 Chinese university students.

Results: The findings demonstrated that intolerance of uncertainty significantly influenced university students' academic burnout with self-regulatory fatigue serving as a key mediator. Additionally, self-compassion can effectively moderate the effects of intolerance of uncertainty on self-regulatory fatigue and academic burnout.

Discussion: These results indicated that the depletion of cognitive resources brought about by uncertainty in the current highly uncertain social environment may be one of the key pathways to academic burnout among university students. Furthermore, current research provides insights into how to mitigate the negative effects of uncertainty on university students.

Keywords: academic burnout; intolerance of uncertainty; self-compassion; self-regulatory fatigue; university students.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Proposed model.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The moderating role of self-compassion between intolerance of uncertainty and self-regulatory fatigue.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The moderating role of self-compassion between intolerance of uncertainty and academic burnout.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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