The Structural Model of the Effect of Academic Stress on Academic Burnout: The Mediating Role of Perception of Creative Educational Environment and Academic Procrastination

The purpose of this study was to investigate the mediating role of perception of creative educational environment and academic procrastination in the relationship between academic stress and academic burnout. This research adopted a correlational design and used structural equation modeling to analyze the relationship between the variables. The population of this study included all students of senior high schools in Sanandaj in the academic year 2018-2019. Of these students, 250 students were selected as the study sample using a random multistage cluster sampling method. The participants were asked to fill out the following questionnaires: creative educational climate, academic procrastination, academic burnout, and academic stress. Data analysis was performed using structural equation modeling, SPSS (version 22), and AMOS (version 24). The results showed that the research model provided the optimal fit to the data. Furthermore, the results showed that while academic procrastination had a positive and significant direct effect on academic burnout, academic stress and creative educational environment did not have a significant effect on academic burnout. Creative educational environment had a significant negative effect on academic procrastination, but academic stress had no significant direct effect on academic procrastination. Also, academic stress had a negative and significant direct effect on the creative educational environment. Regarding the indirect effects, the results showed that academic stress had an indirect effect on academic burnout through the mediating role of creative educational environment and academic procrastination. However, academic stress did not have an indirect effect on academic procrastination through the mediating role of creative educational environment. Also, creative educational environment had an indirect effect on academic burnout through the mediating role of academic procrastination. According to the obtained results, by reducing academic stress and creating a creative educational climate, procrastination can be improved and academic burnout among students can be reduced.