Classroom Emotional Climate and School Burnout in Secondary School Students: A Hierarchical Regression Model

Abstract

The present study investigated the relationship between secondary school students' gender, grade level, the emotional climate of the classroom, and school burnout levels. Using a correlational research design with a random sampling approach, the study collected data from a cohort of 404 Turkish students currently enrolled in secondary schools. Participants completed both the Classroom Emotional Climate Scale and Elementary School Student Burnout Scale for Grades 6-8 in addition to providing responses to a set of demographic questions. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient and hierarchical regression analyses were used to analyse the data. The findings from the correlation analysis demonstrated a significant negative relationship between positive emotional climate and both negative emotional climate and school burnout. Conversely, a significant positive correlation was observed between negative emotional climate and school burnout. Furthermore, the results of the hierarchical regression analysis revealed that both positive and negative emotional climate significantly predicted school burnout, even after accounting for the potential influences of gender and grade level. These findings indicate that interventions focused on enhancing a positive emotional climate while concurrently diminishing a negative emotional climate could be effective in alleviating school burnout among adolescents despite gender and grade level differences.