Construction and validation of the Areas of Academic Life Scale to measure organizational risk factors for student burnout

• Authors: Teresa Chirkowska-Smolak , Magdalena Piorunek , Żaneta Garbacik

Abstracts

EN

Objectives Academic burnout poses a challenge to the educational process. Higher education institutions have responsibilities similar to the ones of management in business settings. These institutions are responsible for creating conditions conducive to development and, as such, may be interested in verifying the presence of student burnout and pinpointing its causes. The purpose of this study was to answer these needs and develop a scale to measure the effect of organizational factors that may predict student burnout. Material and Methods This paper reports the results of a study conducted on a sample of Polish students (N = 659) to construct and validate a multidimensional measure of organizational factors impacting academic burnout, focusing on students. For background purposes and as a starting point, the authors used the concept of the areas of worklife by Ch. Maslach and M. Leiter, who identified 6 areas of the work environment that affect the relationships people develop with their work, i.e., workload, control, reward, community, fairness, and values. Results The authors assessed the factor structure, reliability, and construct validity and performed confirmatory factor analysis of the new scale to measure 6 areas of academic life. Given the results of this study, the scale can be recommended as an adequate tool to measure organizational (academic) factors of burnout in students. Conclusions The authors have validated the final scale, which can be used to advance the understanding of the academic burnout phenomenon.

Keywords

EN

validation; scale; academic burnout; student stress; areas of academic life; organization and management in tertiary education

• Publisher: Instytut Medycyny Pracy im. prof. dra Jerzego Nofera w Łodzi
• Journal: International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health
• Year: 2023
• Volume: 36
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 798-811

Dates

published

2023

Contributors

author

Teresa Chirkowska-Smolak

• Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland (Faculty of Psychology and Cognitive Science, Department of Work and Organizational Psychology)

author

Magdalena Piorunek

• Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland (Faculty of Educational Studies, Department of Social Counselling)

author

Żaneta Garbacik

• Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland (Doctoral School of Social Sciences and Department of Social Counselling)

Identifiers

DOI

10.13075/ijomeh.1896.02173

Biblioteka Nauki

23372729