Comparison of academic burnout, sensitivity to anxiety and psychological vulnerability in students with divorced and normal parents

The aim of this study was to compare academic burnout, anxiety sensitivity and psychological vulnerability in students with divorced and normal parents.

The method of this research was descriptive comparative causal. The statistical population of the study consisted of all female high school students aged 15 to 18 years with divorced and normal parents with diploma and higher education in Ghaemshahr city in the academic year 2022. According to the Ghaemshahr Welfare Department, 90 students aged 15 to 18 have divorced parents. According to the number of the target population based on Krejcie and Morgan table, 73 students with divorced parents were selected as the available sample and the same number were considered for the group of normal people according to the peer group with the main group. In this study, three questionnaires including: burnout questionnaire of Bresso et al. (1997), Anxiety Sensitivity Questionnaire of Floyd et al. (2005), psychological vulnerability Questionnaire Najarian and Davoodi (2001) were used. Data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of variance.

Findings showed that there is a significant difference between academic burnout, sensitivity to anxiety and psychological vulnerability in students with divorced parents and students with normal parents at the level of 0.01. Academic burnout, sensitivity to anxiety, and psychological vulnerability are more common in students with divorced parents than in students with normal parents.

This study shows the role of parental divorce in cognitive performance in students with divorced and normal parents, which can suggest practical implications for psychologists to improve the performance of students with divorced parents.