How Do High and Low Burnout Students Cope with Stressful Situations? Examining Associations Between Coping Mechanism and School Burnout Syndrome

Previous studies confirmed that maladaptive coping strategies are strongly connected to job burnout. However, little is known about the association between coping strategies and student burnout and the differences between high and low burnout adolescents in the frequency of using them. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between strategies of coping with stress and school burnout among Polish high school students. 230 adolescents from Poland (25.7% boys) aged 17–20 (M = 18.25, SD = 0.45) participated in the study. The Polish version of SSBS scale for assessment of the level of school burnout and the Brief Cope Inventory were used. School burnout was significantly associated with lower level of problem-focused coping strategies and higher level of emotion-focused maladaptive coping strategies. Statisticalanalysis confirmed the significant differences in the frequency of using maladaptive coping strategies between high and low burnout students. Regression analysis revealed that lower positive reframing and higher self-blame were the strongest predictors of school burnoutlevel. In the final regression model, 17% of variances in SSBS total score was explained by such coping strategies as: positive reframing, turning to religion, searching for emotional support and denial and venting. We confirmed the significant role of maladaptive coping strategies inincreasing burnout among young people. The findings also indicated that in preventing high school students’ burnout, more attention should be paid to enhancement of problem-focused coping strategies such as positive reframing, turning to religion and emotional support.