Abstract:

Background:
This study explored the psychological burnout among second year students of Covenant University. Burnout as a variable has assumed a global research interest. Burnout is the consequence of stress that impacts on students’ ability to profit maximally from classroom instructions and which often leads to poor academic performance.

Method:
The cross-sectional study employed the descriptive survey method. There were 212 participants (123 males and 89 females) with age ranging from 15 to 21 years (m = 16.8, SD = 1.5) who were randomly selected from four Colleges. The 15-item Maslach Burnout Inventory –Student Survey (MBI-SS), a well validated scale was used for data collection. Chi-square analysis and multiple regressions were used to analyze the data.

Results:
Two hypotheses were tested and result shows that a larger proportion of participants (68%) reported higher levels of burnout symptoms while a lower proportion (32%) reported a lower level of burnout symptoms. The multiple regression analysis shows that there was no significant contribution of sex (β = .022; t = 0.339; p>0.05), age (β = .023; t = 0.354; p>0.05) and College (β = 0.045; t = 0.490; p>0.05) on participant’s perceived psychological burnout. However, participants cumulative grade point average (CGPA) (β = 0.127; t = 1.963; p = 0.005) was a strong predictor of participant’s perceived psychological burnout.

Conclusion:
The findings were discussed with reference to the influence of academic performance as encapsulated in student’s cumulative grade point average in burnout symptoms experienced by students. This study revealed a higher proportion of students reporting higher levels of burnout indicating the need for psychosocial coping skills to achieve psychological adjustment.

Keywords:

Burnout, sophomore students, university, cumulative grade point average.