Predicting Dimensions of Academic Burn Out Based On Alexithymia, Negative Emotions, and Self-Esteem

The present research was aimed to investigate predicting academic burnout based on alexithymia, negative emotions and self-esteem in university students. For this purpose, participants who were a group of 407 students of Kerman Islamic Azad University and were selected via multi-stage cluster sampling method; completed four scales including academic burnout, mental severity (negative emotions: depression, anxiety, and stress), alexithymia and self-esteem.
Findings: Results of regression analysis showed that self-esteem negatively predicts all of academic burnout dimensions. Alexithymia, stress and self-esteem, positively predict academic apathy. In addition, alexithymia positively predict academic exhaustion and academic apathy. The results also showed that the anxiety does not significantly predict dimensions of academic burnout.
findings indicate the role of self-esteem, alexithymia, stress and depression in academic burnout. As this phenomenon is an obstacle in the academic improvement pathway, it is necessary for educators to develop and apply special programs for preventing academic burnout while considering above mentioned variables.