Browsing by Author "Poranen, Nea"

More and more university students are experiencing symptoms of burnout. The symptoms of burnout can start already in the first year of study. This is worrisome because exhaustion has been found to be linked to, among other things, depression and university dropout. Preventing burnout is important for students' well-being. Psychological flexibility has been found to be associated with lower burnout. Psychological flexibility (based on Acceptance and commitment therapy, ACT) means the ability to be present in the moment and live according to one's own values. Most of the research on psychological flexibility is based on the work environment, so research on psychological flexibility among university students is necessary. The aim of this study was to investigate the burnout of first-year students and the connections between psychological flexibility and study burnout. The aim was to investigate whether psychological flexibility alleviates study burnout. The data has been collected through the HowULearn questionnaire (n=261) prepared at the Center for University Teaching and Learning HYPE at the University of Helsinki. The research questions were: How exhausted are first-year students at the beginning and end of the 1st year? 2. In what ways are college students' psychological flexibility and study burnout connected? 3. How does perceived burnout differ in different profiles of psychological flexibility? Student burnout was found to have increased significantly between the measurement carried out in autumn 2020 and spring 2021. The research results showed that study burnout and psychological flexibility were statistically significantly connected. The study showed that psychological flexibility is important for the level of study burnout. The burnout of the most psychologically flexible students was at a lower level in both the initial and final measurements. However, burnout increased in all profiles of psychological flexibility. The impact of psychological flexibility on burnout indicates that ACT-based interventions implemented with university students would be a good solution for preventing student burnout. In addition to this, increasing students' awareness of burnout symptoms would be a good way to prevent study burnout.