Polish High School Student’s Coping Strategies as Predictors of School Burnout Syndrome

Abstract

Background: Numerous prior studies have been tested the associations between stress, coping and burnout. In fact, all three abovementioned constructs are inevitably connected with each other according to many psychological theories. Most of them, however, focused on job-stress related context and were conducted among university students or adults. Much less frequently the specific coping techniques and its relation to burnout symptoms among high school students were analyzed. Objective: The main purpose of the current study was to investigate the associations between coping strategies and burnout syndrome among late adolescents. Secondly we tested if student burnout is a function of gender and age. Additionally, we also tested the cross-cultural validity of student burnout scale (SSBS) by Aypay. Methods: 761 students (35.8% boys), aged 17–19 years participated in the study. Results: The results indicate that student burnout is associated positively with poor coping strategies and negatively with searching for support and active coping strategies. Regression models revealed that higher avoiding behaviors and helplessness, and lower active coping are significant predictors of school burnout, explaining 13% of its variance. The final model consisting of coping strategies and sociodemographic characteristics (age and gender) explained 20% of variance in the SSBS score. According to our studies girls are more prone to develop school burnout syndrome than boys, and older students are more burned out than younger ones. The findings also confirmed that the SSBS scale may be applied in the Polish context as it has good psychometric properties. Conclusion: The findings suggest that the avoiding behaviors as well as lack of active coping may play a pivotal role in school burnout among youth.