The Relationship between Psychological Capital and Academic Burnout among Medical Students: The Mediating Roles of Academic Engagement

Academic students’ burnout can negatively affect academic performance. Thus, it is highly important to identify related factors, which can prevent this phenomenon. The present study explored the relationship between psychological capital and academic burnout by considering the mediating role of academic engagement among students of Kashan University of Medical Sciences. In this descriptive correlational study, multi-stage sampling was used to select 330 students (220 females; 110 males) in Kashan University of Medical Sciences in the 2017-2018 academic years. The participants provided their demographic data and filled in Fredricks engagement scale and, psychological capital scale. The data were descriptively analyzed and correlation analysis and structural equation modeling was used. The findings indicated that psychological capital could significantly and inversely predict students’ academic burnout. In addition, academic engagement has a mediating role in the relationship between psychological capital and academic burnout. Good statistical fitness was found in the proposed model and there was good agreement between the structured model and empirical data. In this model, all regression weights were statistically significant, and predictor variables could explain 0.51 of the variance in academic burnout. The promotion of students' psychological capital should be considered at the policy levels of education and implementation of effective interventions in counseling centers of medical universities. This can reduce their academic burnout through an increase in academic engagement