The Relationship Between Academic Burnout and Hope for the Future in Medical Students: Mediating Role of the Stress

Abstract

Background: Academic burnout, in addition to affecting different aspects of the students' personal lives, can have many negative impacts on their academic and family conditions. Objectives: The present study aimed to investigate the relationships between academic burnout and hope for the future through examining the mediating role of stress in medical students. Methods: The statistical population of this descriptive-correlational study included all students at Ahvaz University of Medical Sciences in 2022. Multistage cluster sampling was used to select 301 students. The research instruments included the Academic Burnout Questionnaire, the Attitudes towards Education and Career Prospects Scale, and Medical Student Stressor Questionnaire. The proposed model was evaluated using structural equation modeling (SEM). Results: The results showed that the direct path from hope for the future to stress was significant (P < 0.001). The indirect path from hope for the future to academic burnout was significant with the mediation of stress (P < 0.001), while the direct path from hope for the future to academic burnout was not significant. Conclusions: Stress mediated the relationship between hope for the future and academic burnout. It was also found that the proposed model had a desirable goodness of fit and may have been considered a major step in identifying the factors responsible for academic burnout in medical students. Given that stress was a central factor in academic burnout, it was suggested that policymakers should appreciate the necessity of providing the stressed students with support from family members and instructors.