Student burnout.

Abstract

Burnout, a concept that has been documented since 1974, is occurring in the helping professions. It is characterized by symptoms of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion and may be an outcome of chronic stress. Students under chronic stress may be at risk for burnout. It is also possible professionals who burn out could have started the process during their formal education. This study was designed to examine possible student burnout levels. Data was gathered from sophomores and sen10rs uS1ng a fixed-effect group design with a crosssectional approach. Volunteering to participate were 127 undergraduate students from a small, midwestern university. The Tedium Measure (TM) and a demographic questionnaire were used in data collection. Specifically, it was hypothesized sen10rs would have significantly higher TM test scores than sophomores. To determine significance, a three-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used with gender (male/female), age traditional/nontraditional), and academic level (sophomore/senior) as independent variables and overall TM test scores as the dependent variable. No significant differences were found between sophomores and seniors on overall TM test scores. However, the mean of overall TM test scores fell in the moderate range (M = 3.37, SD = .69) which is in the same range of TM scores from previously tested students (Pines, Aronson, & Kafry, 1981). Separate ANOVAs for sections A and B of the TM were also calculated utilizing the same variables of gender, age, and academic level. No significant results were obtained from section A. However, traditional sophomore females scored significantly higher on section B than did nontraditional sophomore females. Section B items are more positive than section A and suggest traditional sophomore females may be experiencing life in more positive terms than nontraditional sophomore females.