The Mediating Role of Achievement Emotions in the Relationship Between Causal Attribution and Academic Burnout

This study examined the mediating effect of achievement emotions on the relationship between casual attributions and academic burnout among university students. The method of the current study was descriptive-correlation.  Four hundred and forty six university students (201 females, 245 males) were selected using a multistage random sampling method. The participants completed the Class-Related Achievement Emotions-Short Form (CRE-SF; Geravand et al, 2016), the Attribution Style Questionnaire (ASQ; Peterson et al. 1982) and the School Burnout Inventory (SBI; Salmela-Aro, Kiuru, Leskinen & Nurmi, 2009). The results of structural equation modeling indicated that the partially mediated model of achievement emotions on the relationship between casual attrition patterns and academic burnout had acceptable fit to data. Furthermore, all of the regression weights in the hypothesized model were statistically significant and predictors of the model accounted for 57% and 60% variances of positive and negative achievement emotions, respectively, and 63% variances of academic burnout. The results of the current study supported the role of casual attributions in predicting learners' academic burnout. The findings suggested that the part of common variance between casual attributions and academic burnout were resulted from variability in numerical values attributed to mediating factors in the proposed model.