School burnout in adolescents: what are the roles of emotional autonomy and setting life goals?

ABSTRACT

This study was conducted to investigate the mediating role of setting life goals in the relationship between emotional autonomy and school burnout. The mediation model was tested on 304 high school students [156 (51.3%) females, 148 (48.7%) males; Mage = 16.12, SD = 1.20]. According to the results, we found that school burnout had negative significant correlations with emotional autonomy and setting life goals. On the other hand, there was a significant positive correlation between emotional autonomy and setting life goals. The analysis results indicated that setting life goals had a mediating role between emotional autonomy and school burnout. Accordingly, emotional autonomy promoted setting life goals and contributed to mitigating school burnout. In this respect, this study points out that some positive emotional factors have a protective function against school burnout.

KEYWORDS:

• School burnout
• emotional autonomy
• setting life goals

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Compliance with ethical standards

The authors have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose. This study was conducted in accordance with the 1975 Helsinki Declaration. Firstly, ethics committee permission was obtained from Ataturk University Institute of Social Sciences.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes on contributors

Meva Demir Kaya

Feridun Kaya is an assistant professor, PhD in psychology program at Atatürk University. He is currently a faculty member in the department of psychology at Atatürk University, Turkey, Turkey. His research areas include traumatic experience, resilience, psychological distress, mental health, and subjective well-being.

Feridun Kaya

Meva Demir Kaya is an assistant professor, PhD in Psychology program at Atatürk University, Turkey. She is currently a Faculty Member in the Psychology Division at Atatürk University, Turkey. Her research areas include identity, traumatic experience, resilience, attachment, and mental health.