Abstract:

In recent years, interest in the study of burnout has spread to other contexts beyond the workplace, such as the academic environment. Although academic burnout is a problem that significantly affects university students, to date, its study has not received as much attention as burnout in the workplace. Recently, a relevant development in research on academic burnout has been the study of an opposite construct known as academic engagement. Academic engagement has been defined as a positive mental state related to studies and characterized by vigor in student tasks and high levels of dedication and absorption in performing those tasks. The objective of this study is to describe the level of burnout and academic engagement among students in the Gastronomy and Culinary Arts Degree program, as well as to analyze the relationship and prediction between the dimensions of burnout and those of academic engagement. The sample consisted of 70 students from different academic years of the Gastronomy and Culinary Arts Degree at the University of Alicante (Spain) (55.74% women and 44.29% men) with a mean age of M= 25.36, SD=12.41. All participants completed the Academic Well-Being Survey (UWES-S) to measure academic engagement through the subscales: vigor (VI), dedication (DE), and absorption (AB), and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) to measure academic burnout through the subscales Exhaustion (EX), Cynicism (CY), and Efficacy (EF), as well as an ad hoc sociodemographic data questionnaire. The results showed that the dimensions of burnout correlate negatively with those of academic engagement, except for the EF dimension, which correlates positively. With regard to predictive analyses, the results showed that high levels of EX increase the probability of low AB (OR = 2.311; 95% CI: 1.200–4.449); high levels of CY increase the probability of low DE (OR = 1.520; 95% CI: 1.066–2.168); and low levels of EF increase the probability of low AB (OR = 2.400 95% CI: 1.045–5.513). These results highlight the relationship between burnout and academic engagement, enabling the identification of possible intervention needs that can guarantee the quality of the teaching-learning process and provide students with resources for their academic and professional future.

Keywords:

Burnout, vigor, dedication, absorption, academic engagement, exhaustion, cynicism, efficacy, university students.