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Burned out to drop out: Exploring the relationship between school burnout and school dropout

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Abstract

This paper examines the development of school burnout among Finnish youth aged 16–18, specifically with regard to the following three components: a cynical attitude toward the school, feelings of inadequacy as a student, and exhaustion at school. There is evidence of an increase in all three components over time, but only among students on the academic track. There appear to be differences in burnout levels between those who drop out from school and those who do not, and the risk of an individual with high levels of cynicism or feelings of inadequacy dropping out is clearly higher than among those who score low on these two components. When various explanatory variables are controlled for, cynicism still remains a significant factor explaining drop out, and a low grade point average appears to be a major explanatory variable for school dropout. This study is especially interesting in the context of Finland, known for its equality-striving and high-quality educational system. Finnish youth, compared with youth in many other countries, nevertheless have a low level of in-school well-being. We use the Finnish Educational Transitions data (N = 878) collected in four waves, the first three on an annual basis and the fourth 5 years after the first one.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Ingrid Schoon for her valuable comments on this article. This research was funded by the Jacobs Foundation.

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Correspondence to Miia Bask.

Additional information

Miia Bask. Department of Social Studies, Karlstad University, 651 88 Karlstad, Sweden. E-mail: miia.bask@kau.se; Webpage: http://www.kau.se/avdelningen-for-sociala-studier

Current themes of research:

Adolescent externalizing behavior. Cumulative (dis)advantage processes. Matthew effect. Social stratification and inequality.

Katariina Salmela-Aro. Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 4, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland. E-mail: katariina.salmela-aro@helsinki.fi; Webpage: http://www.helsinki.fi/collegium/english/

Current themes of research:

Motivation. Critical life-transitions. Productive development. Well-being and related interventions.

Most relevant publications in the field of Psychology of Education:

Salmela-Aro, K., & Ubadaya, K. (2012). The school work engagement inventory: energy, dedication, and absorption (EDA). European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 28, 60–67.

Salmela-Aro, K., Tolvanen, A., & Nurmi, J.-E. (2011). Social strategies during university studies predict early career work burnout and engagement: 18-year longitudinal study. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 79, 145–157.

Salmela-Aro, K., Mutanen, P., Koivisto, P., & Vuori, J. (2010). Adolescents’ future education-related personal goals, concerns, and internal motivation during the “Towards Working Life” group intervention. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 7, 445–462.

Salmela-Aro, K., & Tynkkynen, L. (2010). Trajectories of life satisfaction across the transition to post-compulsory education: do adolescents follow different pathways? Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 39, 870–881.

Salmela-Aro, K., Kiuru, N., Leskinen, E., & Nurmi, J.-E. (2009). School-burnout inventory (SBI): reliability and validity. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 25, 48–57.

Appendix

Appendix

Tables 3, 4, and 5

Table 3 LGC parameter estimates for three components of school burnout
Table 4 Multigroup analysis comparing the academic and the vocational track
Table 5 Multigroup analysis comparing the dropouts and non-dropouts

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Bask, M., Salmela-Aro, K. Burned out to drop out: Exploring the relationship between school burnout and school dropout. Eur J Psychol Educ 28, 511–528 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-012-0126-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-012-0126-5

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