Study engagement and burnout profiles among Finnish higher education students

Abstract

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.