Browsing by Subject "studying"

There has been increasing research attention on wellbeing of students in higher education both in Finland and internationally. Because of its goal-oriented nature, higher education resembles working in many ways. Thus, research on students´ wellbeing has started utilizing concepts derived from occupational research. Burnout and study engagement are concepts that are being used in research on both lower educational levels and higher education. Burnout describes feelings of exhaustion, cynicism and inadequacy experienced when demands of studying exceed available resources. Engagement on the other hand means feeling vigorous, dedicated and absorbed in studying and arises when demands and resources are better balanced. The goal of this thesis was to increase understanding of social resources that can guard against the negative effects of demands and foster engagement in higher education. It investigated how social support, guidance and counselling from the educational institution and sense of belonging to studying related groups are related to burnout and engagement experienced by students. The data for this study was the Finnish Student Health Service´s Student Health Survey from 2016, which is a representative sample of students in universities and universities of applied sciences in Finland (N=3110). Burnout symptoms were measured using the SBI-9 measure and engagement using the Schoolwork Engagement Scale. The total scores on these two scales were analyzed together with social support, guidance and counselling and sense of belonging to studying related groups. Pearson´s correlation coefficients were obtained to reveal the bivariate associations of these variables followed by two hierarchical regression analyses on burnout and engagement individually. All of the social resources were included as predictors in these models and the stage of studies, gender and feeling of being in the right field of study were controlled for as background variables. The results supported both hypotheses and existing literature. It was found that those students who were able to talk about their matters with someone, had received guidance to their studies and felt like they belong to studying related groups had lower levels of burnout symptoms. Similarly, students with sufficient social resources were more engaged in their studies. The results indicate that social resources are an important factor in wellbeing of higher education students. Future research should continue to further study these resources using more accurate measures incorporating different types of social support or different groups in the educational context.