At the mentioned Eastern University Finland a study was carried out during which Over 200 Finnish secondary school students were monitored for three years of study. The aim was to examine the relationship between the support received by students, their engagement in learning and gender differences in the context of various variants of school burnout manifested by exhaustion, cynicism and low self-esteem.
The results, published in the “Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research”, showed that the previously mentioned symptoms were related to each other already in the first year of high school. An increase in burnout in one of these areas led to an increase in the others as well.
According to the analyzes of Dr. Fia Söderholm, the main author of the study, exhaustion was highest during the first year of high school and remained stable over the following years. Cynicism and the feeling of not being good enough, initially lower, increased over time.
The study also showed that student engagement was very important in this context. Students who emotionally engaged in learning, they experienced exhaustion less often. In contrast, those who saw science as important to their future and had clearly defined goals were less likely to become cynical.
Research also revealed that girls experienced exhaustion and low self-esteem more often than boys. Cynicism, however, affected both sexes to the same extent. Interestingly, the support the student received in primary school had no impact on his well-being after moving to secondary school.
In high school, support helped mainly in the first year of school, but later even it was not enough to prevent burnout from increasing in the following years.
Dr. Söderholm notes that as secondary school becomes more demanding in the second and third years, it is necessary to take into account the increasing demands as potential causes of burnout.
The curriculum is becoming more complex, expectations for independent learning are increasing, and the approaching final exams are putting pressure on students. Previous research by Dr. Söderholm and her team also showed the same student engagement wanes after the first year.
Söderholm emphasizes that differences between subsequent years of secondary school should be better taken into account. He also says that in the future it is worth examining what forms of help students would most like to receive. According to her, appropriately tailored support can help prevent an increase in burnout and improve the well-being of young people at such a demanding time in their lives.
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Source: geekweek.interia.pl
