Stress, self-compassion, and school burnout in Thai high school students

Abstract

Abstract Objectives High school has been recognized as a critical period for many students. With the upcoming competition for university admission, they tend to encounter significant stress. Exceeding its optimal level, stress became debilitating and could escalate into school burnout, which entailed various negative outcomes. The current study, hence, was aimed to identify a protective factor that helped mediate the relationship between stress and school burnout in Thai high school students. Self-compassion was selected here, given its relevant conceptual grounds and its cultural relevance (i.e., Thai individuals shown to be particularly oriented toward self-compassion). Methods Data were collected from 170 Thai high school students, who responded to measures of stress, self-compassion, and school burnout. A structural equation model (SEM) was used to test the hypothetical model where the positive association between stress and school burnout was mediated by self-compassion. Results All indices of the model fits were confirmed, and the proposed model explained 80% of the variance in school burnout. Conclusion The role of self-compassion in alleviating the impact of stress on school burnout was shown and relevant implications were discussed.