VTE Student Burnout from (Covid)-19 Pandemic: Exploring Student and Family Risk and Protective Factors

Abstract

Due to China???s three years of ???Zero Covid??? containment policy, the vast majority of vocational and technological education (VTE) high school students could not participate in work-based learning, had to take classes online, and often were isolated from their families. Although the impact of the unprecedented disruptions of the Covid-19 pandemic on students??? wellbeing has been well documented, little is known about the experiences of vocational and technical high school students whose vocational identity development depends heavily on work-based learning experiences. In the following study, we applied a risk and resilience framework to examine Chinese VTE student burnout following the exposure to the ???Zero Covid??? policy for their entire high school career. Specifically, we tested how variations in Chinese vocational and technical high school students??? perceived impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, career adaptability, psychological capital, academic performance, and parental career guidance were related to differences in their sense of burnout. Regression results showed that paternal education level and perceived impact of Covid-19 pandemic positively and significantly predicted burnout, while academic performance and parental career support negatively and significantly predicted burnout. Age, sex, internship participation, career adaptability and parental career interference and parental lack-of-engagement did not predict burnout. Overall, the variables accounted for 53.6% of the variance in student burnout.