Study engagement and burnout profiles among Finnish higher education students.
Open accessAbstract
A person-oriented approach was applied to identify profiles of study engagement and burnout (i.e., exhaustion, cynicism, inadequacy) in higher education in a large and representative sample of 12,394 higher education students at different phases of their studies in universities and polytechnics in Finland. Four profiles were identified: Engaged (44%), engaged-exhausted (30%) inefficacious (19%) and burned-out (7%). The engaged students had the most positive engagement accompanied with the least burnout symptoms compared to other groups. The engaged-exhausted students experienced emotional exhaustion simultaneously with academic engagement. The inefficacious group had heightened experience of inadequacy as a student. The burned-out students showed very high cynicism and inadequacy and very low academic engagement compared to the other groups. Of these groups, the engaged students tended to be in the earlier stages in their studies, whereas the burned-out and inefficacious students had been studying the longest. The pattern suggests that students starting out with high engagement and that burnout becomes more common later in the academic career. Supporting demands-resources model, the covariates reflecting the demands were higher and those reflecting resources were lower among the burned-out and inefficacious students compared to the engaged students.
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Previous studies in educational contexts among elementary, high school, and higher education students have identified three to five profiles: engaged, engaged-burnout, and burnout profiles.
“Previous studies in educational context, among elementary (Salmela-Aro et al., 2017), high school (Tuominen-Soini and Salmela-Aro, 2014) and higher education (Salmela-Aro and Read, 2016) students rather than teachers have identified three to five profiles, engaged, engaged-burnout and burnout profiles.”
From Work Burnout and Engagement Profiles Among Teachers (2019) · cites this paper as Salmela-Aro and Read, 2016
The engaged-burnout profile is in line with earlier studies among high school students that identified a group of students who are engaged but have some symptoms of burnout.
“This group is in line with the earlier studies among students in high school which has identified a group of students who are engaged but have at the same time some symptoms of burnout (Salmela-Aro and Read, 2017).”
From Work Burnout and Engagement Profiles Among Teachers (2019) · cites this paper as Salmela-Aro and Read, 2017
Previous studies in educational contexts among elementary, high school, and higher education students have identified three to five profiles: engaged, engaged-burnout, and burnout profiles.
“Previous studies in educational context, among elementary (Salmela-Aro et al., 2017), high school (Tuominen-Soini and Salmela-Aro, 2014) and higher education (Salmela-Aro and Read, 2016) students rather than teachers have identified three to five profiles, engaged, engaged-burnout and burnout profiles.”
From Work Burnout and Engagement Profiles Among Teachers (2019) · cites this paper as Salmela-Aro et al., 2017
Cites
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The Job Demands‐Resources model: state of the art
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School burnout and engagement in the context of demands-resources model.
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Self-citationPsychological stress and burnout in medical students: a five-year prospective longitudinal study
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Work Burnout and Engagement Profiles Among Teachers
Salmela-Aro, K., Hietajärvi, L., & Lonka, K. (2019) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02254 · Cited by 142 · see citing works
Self-citationEngagement and disengagement in online learning
Bergdahl, N. (2022) · Computers & Education · doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2022.104561 · Cited by 133 · see citing works
Portoghese, I., Leiter, M. P., Maslach, C., Galletta, M., Porru, F., D’Aloja, E., Finco, G., & Campagna, M. (2018) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02105 · Cited by 124 · see citing works
Katajavuori, N., Vehkalahti, K., & Asikainen, H. (2023) · Current Psychology · doi:10.1007/s12144-021-01837-x · Cited by 50 · see citing works
“Recent studies have shown that psychological flexibility has a strong relation to student engagement and progression in studies (Asikainen, 2018; Asikainen et al., 2018; Salmela-Aro & Read, 2017).”
BackgroundResultA longitudinal study of school climate: Reciprocal effects with student engagement and burnout
Grazia, V. (2022) · Psychology in the Schools · doi:10.1002/pits.22691 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
Gadosey, C. K., Grunschel, C., Kegel, L. S., Schnettler, T., Turhan, D., Scheunemann, A., Bäulke, L., Thomas, L., Buhlmann, U., Dresel, M., et al. (2022) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.918367 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
- Authors
- Salmela-Aro, K., & Read, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Helsinki (FI)
- ORCID
- Read, Sanna
- Venue
- Burnout Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2017-12
- Volume
- 7
- Pages
- 21-28
- ISSN
- 2213-0578 (ISSN-L)
- 2213-0586
- OpenAlex
- W2770306218
- Cited by
- 319
- References
- 11
- Citations by year
- 2026: 45 · 2025: 41 · 2024: 45 · 2023: 47 · 2022: 54 · 2021: 40 · 2020: 23 · 2019: 17 · 2018: 7
- FWCI
- 18.41
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Burnout Research (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- London School of Economics and Political Science Research Online (London School of Economics and Political Science) (acceptedVersion)
- Työväentutkimus Vuosikirja (submittedVersion)
- Jyväskylä University Digital Archive (University of Jyväskylä) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- London School of Economics and Political Science Theses Online (London School of Economics and Political Science) (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Stress and Burnout Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Student Stress and Coping
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Workaholism, burnout, and well-being
- Keywords
- academic burnout, study engagement, university students, exhaustion, cynicism, inadequacy, person-oriented approach, student profile, job demands-resources model, academic career stages
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